
Book . ■■' 

Cop\Tiglil X" 



COFYRKiHT UK POSIT. 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 




OTHER BOOKS 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

LANDSCAPE GARDENING 

PLUMS AND PLUM CULTURE 

FRUIT HARVESTING, STOR- 
ING, MARKETING 

SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY 




DWARF CHERRY TREE 
Two years planted 



DWARF 
FRUIT TREES 



THEIR PROPAGATION, PRUNING, AND 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT, ADAPTED 
TO THE UNITED STATES AND 
CANADA :::::: 



f/a:^WAUGH 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 
1906 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CopJes Recfived 

AUG 3 1906 

Ctflffi^njL Entry 



Sf: 




;LAsr_<^ XXc. No, 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1906 
BY ORANGK JUDD COMPANY 



PREFACE 



The commercial interests have so continuously and 
completely held the horticultural stage in America dur- 
ing the last two decades that it has been impossible 
for amateur horticulture to get in a word edgewise. 
Any public speaker or writer has had to talk about 
several acres at a time or he would not be listened to. 
He has been obliged to insist that his scheme would 
pay on a commercial scale before anyone would hear, 
much less consider, what he had to tell. 

But now a change is coming. Different conditions 
are already upon us. A thousand signs indicate the 
new era. With hundreds — yes thousands— of men 
and women now horticulture is an avocation, a pas- 
time. They grow trees largely for the pleasure of it; 
and their gardens are built amidst surroundings which 
would make commercial pomology laugh at itself. 

And so I undertake to offer the first American fruit 
book in a quarter century which can boldly declare 
its independence of the professional element in fruit 
growing. I am confident that dwarf fruit trees have 
some commercial possibilities, but they are of far 
greater importance to the small householder, the owner 



Vlll PREFACE 

of the private "estate," the village dweller, the subur- 
banite and the commuter. 

In other words, while I hope that all good people 
will be interested in dwarf fruit trees and that some 
of them will share the enthusiasm of which this book 
is begotten, I do not want anyone to think that I 
have issued any guaranty, expressed or implied, that 
dwarf trees will open a paying commercial enterprise. 
Because the argument that a thing pays has been so 
long the only recommendation offered for any horti- 
cultural scheme, many persons have formed the habit 
of assuming that every sort of praise stands on this 
one foundation. 

F. A. Waugii. 

MassacJitisetfs Agricultural College, ipo6. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface . . , . v 

I. General Considerations i 

II. Advantages and Disadvantages 8 

III. Propagation 22 

IV. Pruning 33 

V. Special Forms o ..... 41 

VI. General Management 51 

VII. Dwarf Apples 63 

VIII. Dwarf Pears , . . . 76 

IX. Dwarf Peaches 83 

X. Dwarf Plums 90 

XI. Bush Fruits , . 99 

XII. Fruit Trees in Pots 106 

XIII. Personalia .............. 112 

Index ...CO , . 125 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Dwarf Cherry Tree Frontispiece' 

FIG. PAGE 

1 Dwarf Apple Trees in Western New York .... 3 

2 Trained Cordon Apple Trees 5 

3 Bismarck Apple 7 

4 Pear Tree Trained as an Espalier 9 

5 Bush Apple Tree ii 

6 Plums as Upright Cordons 17 

7 Paradise Apple Stocks in Early Spring 25 

8 The Western Sand Cherry 30 

9 Upright Cordon Plum 31 

10 Bush Apple 34 

11 Bush Apple, Three Years Old, Before Pruning . . 37 

12 Bush Apple, Same Tree, After Pruning 37 

13 Cordon Pears Before Pruning 39 

14 Cordon Pears After Pruning 39 

15 Pears in Double U Form . . , . 43 

16 Pears in U Form 45 

17 Apricots in U Form 47 

18 Pear in Espalier 48 

19 Old Espalier Pears on Farm House Wall .... 49 

20 Horizontal Cordon Apple and Other Dwarf Trees . 52 

21 Design for a Back Yard Fruit Garden 53 

22 Dwarf Fruit Garden 55 

23 Fruit Gardening and Landscape Gardening Combined 59 

24 A Fruit Garden Containing Many Dwarf Trees . . 61 

25 Dwarf Apples on Prof. L. H. Bailey's Farm, New York 65 

xi 



xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. PAGE 

26 Upright Cordon Apples ........... t"] 

27 Horizontal Cordon Apple Trees 71 

28 Young Orchard of Dwarf Pear in Western New York 76 

29 Dwarf Pear in the Old and Profitable Yeomans 

Orchard, New York 77 

30 Orchard of Dwarf Duchess Pear, Lockport, N. Y, 79 

31 Pyramid Pears in a German Orchard 80 

32 Dwarf Peach in Nursery 84 

33 Espalier Peach, Hartford, Conn 85 

34 Peach in Fan Espalier on Wall — England .... 87 

35 Peach Trees Trained Under Glass .... . . 88 

36 Plum Trees Trained as Upright Cordons .... 91 

37 Burbank Plums on Upright Cordons Trained to Trellis 95 

38 Currants as Fan Espaliers on Trellis 100 

39 Gooseberry Fan Espalier 102 

40 Tree Form Gooseberry 104 

41 A Fruiting Peach in Pot 108 

42 A Fig Tree in a Pot no 

43 Dwarf Pear 117 

44 Chenango Apples in Prof. L. H. Bailey's Orchard . 121 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 

A DWARF fruit tree is simply one which does not 
reach full size. It is not so large as it might be ex- 
pected to be. It is smaller than a normal tree of the 
same variety and age. 

There are indeed some trees which are normally 
dwarf, so to speak. They never reach a considerable 
size. They are smaller than other better known and 
related species. For example, the species Primus pii- 
mila besscyi is sometimes called the dwarf sand cherry, 
simply because it is always notably smaller than re- 
lated species. The Paradise apple is spoken of as a 
dwarf because it never attains the stature wdiich other 
apples attain. 

But in the technical sense, as •the term is used by 
nurserymen and pomoiogists, a dwarf tree is one 
which is made, by some artificial means, to grow 
smaller than normal trees of the same variety. 

These artificial means used for making dwarf trees 
are chiefly three; (i) propagation on dwarfing stocks, 



2 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

(2) repressive priming, and (3) training to some pre- 
scribed form. 

DWARFING STOCKS 

The most common and important means of secur- 
ing dwarf trees is that of propagating them on dwarf- 
ing stocks. These are simply such roots as make a 
slower and weaker growth than the trees from which 
cions are taken. This will be understood better from 
a concrete example. The quince tree normally grows 
slower than the pear, and usually reaches about half 
the size at maturity. Now pear cions will unite read- 
ily with quince roots and will grow in good health 
for many years. But when a pear tree is thus de- 
pendent for daily food on a quince root it fares like 
Oliver Twist. It never gets enough. It is always 
starved. It makes considerably less annual growth, 
and never (or at least seldom) reaches the size which 
it might have reached if it had been growing on a 
pear root. 

This is, somewhat roughly stated, the whole theory 
of dwarfing fruit trees by grafting them on slow- 
growing stocks. The tree top is always under-nour- 
ished and thus restrained in its ambitious o-rowth of 
branches, as seen in Fig. i 

While the tree is made thus smaller by being grafted 
on a restraining rdbt, it is not affected in its other 
characteristics. At least theoretically it is not. It 
still bears the same kind of fruit and foliage. Bart- 
lett pear trees budded on quince roots yield fruit true 
to name. The pears are still Bartletts, and can not 
be told from those grown on an ordinary tree. Some- 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



times the fruit from dwarf trees seems to be better 
colored or better flavored than that from standard 
trees ; but such differences are very cleHcate and usu- 
ally receive slight thought. 




FIG. 



-DWARF APPLE TREES IN WESTERN NEW YORK 



Dwarf fruit trees have not been very largely grown 
in America, but have been much more widely used in 
Europe. This statement holds good either for com- 
mercial plantations or for private fruit gardens. They 
are coming into more common use in this country 



4 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

because, in both market orchards and amateur gardens, 
our pomology is coming to be somewhat more Hke 
that of Europe. Our conditions are approaching those 
of the Old World, even though they will always be 
very different from those of Europe in horticultural 
matters. 

Dwarf fruit trees are particularly valuable in small 
gardens; and small gardens are becoming constantly 
more popular among our urban, and especially our 
suburban, population. This matter is discussed more 
fully in another chapter. Fruit of finer quality can 
be grown on dwarf trees, as a general rule, than can 
usually be grown on standard trees. Every year there 
are more people in America who are willing to take 
any necessary pains to secure fruit of extra quality. 
This remark applies particularly to amateur fruit 
growers and to owners of private estates who grow 
fruit for their own tables, but it is no less true of a 
certain class of fruit buyers, especially in the richer 
cities. Although $3 a barrel is still a high price for 
ordinary good apples, sales of fancy apples at $3 a 
dozen fruits are by no means infrequent in the city 
markets every winter. 

In this respect also we are approaching European 
conditions. In the markets of the continental capi- 
tals in particular fancy fruits are frequently sold at 
prices which seem almost incredible to an American. 
Single apples sometimes bring 50 cents to a dollar, 
and peaches an equal price. Just recently a story has 
been going the rounds of the newspapers that the 
caterer for the Czar's table sometimes pays as high 
as $15 apiece for peaches for the royal table. Here- 




< ^ 
o 

Z u 

O <i> 

Q ^ 

g N 

a 

0) o 



b DWARF FRUIT TREES 

upon a solemn American editor remarked that if the 
whole royal family should live upon nothini^ but 
peaches it would still be cheaper than carrying on the 
Japanese war. 

Now if there is anywhere within reach a market 
for apples or peaches at $3 a dozen specimens — and 
there unquestionably is — then it will pay to grow 
fancy fruits with special care to meet this demand. 
This kind of fruit can be grown better upon dwarf 
trees than upon standards in many cases, if not in 
most. At least such is the conviction of the present 
writer. Moreover this has been the experience in the 
old country. 

With such facts in view there seems to be a 
possible future for dwarf fruit trees, even for com- 
mercial purposes. Their present utility in amateur 
gardens and on wealthy private estates can not be 
questioned. These various amateur and commercial 
adaptations of dwarf trees will have to be more care- 
fully analyzed and discussed in a future chapter, and 
the subject may therefore be dropped for the present. 




FIG. 3 — BISMARCK APPLE, FIRST YEAR PLANTED 
22 inches high : bearing 4 fruits 



II 

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 

It is a good prejudice which expects every man 
who writes anything to be enthusiastic over his sub- 
ject. Such enthusiasm doubtless leads a writer many 
times to over-state his case, and to claim more than 
the calm judgment of the multitude will ratif\'. And 
on the other hand, readers usually tacitly discount 
the statements of any man who writes about any 
matter in which he is plainly interested. The present 
writer knows that he is also under the ban, and that 
the reader firmly expects him to claim more for dwarf 
fruit trees than their merits will fairly warrant. This 
expectation the writer ho])es to disappoint. It will 
be enough to set down here the obvious advantages 
and disadvantages which the horticulturist will meet 
in handling dwarf fruit trees. These statements are 
mostly of matters of common experience and they 
need no coloring to make them serve their present 
purpose. 

We may fairly set down the following good points 
standing more or less generally to the credit of dwarf 
fruit trees : 

I. Early bearing. — This is a sufficiently obvious ad- 
vantage. The Alexander apple will bear the second 
year after planting when grown as a dwarf, wdiile 
it requires six to ten years to come into bearing as a 
standard. This habit of early bearing proves valuable 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 



in many ways. It encourages men to plant trees. The 
disinclination of old men to plant trees rests upon 
the slenderness of the chance that they will ever gather 
of the fruit. But a man may plant dwarf trees when- 
ever his expectation of life is two years or more. 



* ^ ^ v?^.^:^ 




^^^^ 



^^-^-■fir'fr''^^'. 



i^J tt 







'•*"< r, 



FIG. 4^PEAR TREE, TRAINED AS AN ESPALIER 

Such trees would serve octogenarians, consumptives 
and those sentenced to be hanged for murder. 

Early bearing — to return to the subject — makes 
dwarf trees valuable to that large and unfortunately 
growing class of citizens who rent the premises where 
they live. They do not expect to stay more than five 



lO DWARF FRUIT TREES 

or six years in any one place. In that length of time 
ordinary trees would not begin to yield any fruit. 
But with dwarf trees there is excellent probability 
of seeing something ripen. Then again early bearing 
is a great advantage when one is testing new or old 
varieties. It is a great advantage when a commercial 
orchard is designed and when dwarf trees are used 
for fillers as explained below. 

2. Siiiall sice. — The very smallness of the dwarf 
trees has many advantages in it. The trees are easier 
to reach and to care for. They are easier to prune and 
to spray. This facility in spraying is what has chiefly 
recommended smaller fruit trees to commercial fruit 
growers in recent years. Particularly in those places 
where the San Jose scale is a perennial problem a 
very large tree becomes an impossibility, and the 
smaller the trees can be the better it suits. 

The small size of dwarf trees permits the planting 
of larger numbers on a given area. This is specially 
worth while to the amateur who has a small gar- 
den where only three or four standard trees could 
grow, but where he can comfortably handle forty or 
fifty dwarfs. Yet it is also worth the consideration 
of the commercial fruit grower who is trying to earn 
a profit on expensive land. If he can increase the 
number of bearing trees on each acre, especially 
during the early years of establishing his orchard, it 
almost certainly means increased income. 

3. High quality. — It is not perfectly certain that 
every kind of fruit can be produced in higher quality 
on dwarf trees than on standards, but such is the gen- 
eral rule. This is notably true of certain pears, as 




P^^3. 5— BUSH APPLE TREE, THREE YEARS PLANTED 



12 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

Buerre Giffard and Doyenne dn Cornice, and it is 
generally the case with all apples that can be success- 
fully grown on Paradise roots. One can secure size, 
color, flavor and finish on an Alexander or a Ribston 
Pippin, for example, which can never be secured on 
a standard tree. One who has not seen this thing 
done will hardly understand it; those who have will 
not need more argument. Such plums as we have 
fruited on dwarf trees have shown similar improvement 
in quality, being always distinctly superior to the 
same varieties grown on standard trees. The signifi- 
cance of these facts will appear at once to any one 
familiar with the course of the fruit markets in Amer- 
ica. There are greater rewards awaiting the fruit 
grower who can produce fruit of superior quality than 
the one who succeeds merely in increasing the c[uan- 
tity of his output. 

SPECIAL USES FOR DWARF TREES 

These various items of advantage recommend dwarf 
fruit trees for several specific purposes, some of which 
are worth pointing out in detail. 

I. For suburban places. — A large and increasing 
percentage of our population now lives the suburban 
life — in that zone where city and country meet. They 
have small tracts of land, which, however, they too 
often lease instead of owning. On these they do 
more or less gardening, — usually more, in proportion 
to the size of their holdings. For them dwarf fruit 
trees are a precious boon. It is possible to plant three 
hundred to five hundred dwarf fruit trees on a quarter 
of an acre, where less than a dozen standard trees 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 1 3 

would flourish. This gives the opportunity to experi- 
ment with all sorts and varieties of fruits, a privilege 
very dear to the heart of the commuter. The dwarf 
fruit trees also work more readily into a scheme of 
more or less ornamental gardening, where fruits are 
combined with vegetables and flowers. Especially if 
some sort of formal gardening is attempted, the cor- 
dons, espaliers and pyramids exactly suit the de- 
mands. Then the fact, already mentioned, that the 
dwarf trees come into bearing much sooner, is a 
consideration of the highest value to the suburban 
gardener. He fully expects to move from one home 
to another at least once in ten years, if not once in five. 
With the best of intentions and the most favorable 
of opportunities he can hardly expect to settle down 
anywhere for life. The suburbs themselves change 
too rapidly for that; and the place which today is 
away off in the country may be all covered with fac- 
tories five years from now. It is terribly discourag- 
ing, under such circumstances, to plant a tree knowing 
that ten years must pass before any considerable fruit- 
age can be expected from it. It is altogether another 
feeling with which one plants a tree which promises 
fruit within two or three years. 

So that, whatever the drawbacks to the planting of 
dwarfs, they are the salvation of the suburban garden. 
For such circumstances they can be freely recom- 
mended, without exception or reservation. 

2. For orchard fillers. — As commercial orcharding 
becomes more refined, under the stress of modern com- 
petition, and as good orchard land increases in value, 
up to one hundred, two hundred, or even three hun- 



14 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

dred dollars an acre, new methods must be adopted 
with a view to increasing the returns. This oppor- 
tunity looms especially large for the first few years 
after the establishment of the commercial orchard, 
more particularly the apple orchard. When standard 
trees are planted thirty-five to the acre, which is now 
the usual practice, the land is not more than one- 
fourth occupied for the first five years, and not more 
than half occupied for the first ten years. Indeed it 
is full twenty years from the time of planting before 
the thirty-five apple ti'ees will use the whole acre. And 
since a good farmer can not afford to let expensive 
land lie idle he has before him a very pretty problem 
to determine how the space between the standard 
trees shall be utilized during the early years of the 
orchard's growth. 

Several different methods are in vogue for the solu- 
tion of this problem ; but probably the best one is 
that system which supplies fillers or temporary trees 
between the standard or permanent ones. In an or- 
chard of standard apple trees these fillers may very 
properly be dwarf apple trees ; or between standard 
pears dwarf pears may be planted. If there are thirty- 
five standard apple trees to an acre, and if a dwarf 
tree is placed half way between each two standards 
in every direction, including the diagonal direction, 
this will make one hundred and five dwarf trees, or 
one hundred and forty trees in all, instead of the 
thirty-five trees with which the acre of apple orchard 
land is more commonly furnished. The dwarf apple 
trees will be bearing good crops at the end of five years 
at most ; and they can be kept on the land for five 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 15 

years longer at the least, before they will begin to 
crowd the permanent standards. During these five 
years, if the orchard has a paying management at all, 
they will easily pay all the expenses of the enterprise, 
and should leave a substantial balance of profit. 

As this system of filling, or interplanting, commer- 
cial orchards is becoming more and more common, the 
suitability of dwarf trees, for this purpose, becomes 
more generally evident. 

3. For school gardens.— TXm^ far school gardens 
in America have been mostly temporary and experi- 
mental affairs. But we are already satisfied that they 
have come to stay, and that gardening in some form 
will be a permanent feature of the curriculum in many 
of our best schools. As soon as a school garden be- 
comes a permanent institution, with ground of its 
own to be held in use year after year, the dependence 
on annual crops will give way to the use of various 
perennial plants, shrubs and trees. 

And among these dwarf fruit trees will naturally 
be one of the first introductions. Their small size 
adapts them to the school premises, their habit of 
early bearing again serves to recommend them most 
strikingly, and the special opportunity which they 
offer to pupils to observe details of pruning and other 
items of tree management, make them almost a first 
necessity in the permanent school garden. 

4. For covering zcalls and fences. — There are many 
places about every farm, suburban establishment, or 
even about many city homes, where back walls and 
fences could be put out of sight very agreeably by 
almost any sort of foliage. Various ornamental climb- 



l6 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

ers and creepers are in vogue for this service; but a 
certain number of such unattractive wahs and fences 
could be treated quite as acceptably, from the esthetic 
point of view, with trained fruit trees, and the result 
would be more satisfactory in some other ways. Ap- 
ples or pears trained as cordons or espaliers, or peaches, 
nectarines, or cherries in fan forms, will thrive on 
almost any brick or wooden wall, except those with 
a northern front. It is necessary only to supply a 
proper soil, to plant sound trees of proper sorts, 
and to give them the prescribed care. The result is 
not only a thing of beauty but one of practical utility 
as well. 

There are many places where the owner of a cit\' 
or suburban lot can secure the fun and the substantial 
benefits belonging to the fruit grower on land that 
would be otherwise wasted, if he will only buikl a 
woven wire fence on the property line between him 
and his not-too-agreeable neighbor, using this fence 
as a support for a row of cordon plums, pears or apples. 
If he has time and inclination to do a little more work 
with the trees he can better plant U-form peaches, 
nectarines or apricots, or he can grow plums in U-form, 
or he can have fan-form cherry trees, or apples or 
pears in Verrier-palmettes. One of the most interest- 
ing and productive lots in the author's dwarf fruit 
garden is a row of plum trees on such a woven wire 
trellis. The trees in this row stand two feet apart, 
and form a perfect screen. (Fig. 6.) The majority of 
the trees which were necessarily taken for planting 
this row were not propagated on suitable stocks, and 
many varieties were introduced for experimental pur- 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 



17 



poses which were obviously iinadapted to this mode 
of training, but nevertheless the net result has been 
highly satisfactory. 




YiG. 6— PLUMS AS UPRIGHT CORDONS, SET TWO FEET APART 

In a very similar manner apple, pear or plum trees 
may be trained so as to form an arched arbor way. 
In this kind of make-up they present a most agree- 



iS DWARF FRUIT TREES 

able novelty. An example of this kind of training is 
shown in the illustration, page 5. For this purpose 
cordon trees are usually best; though peach or apri- 
cot trees in U-form or double U-form will answer 
very well. Even apple trees or pears formed as pal- 
mettes-A^errier can be carried up over an arched trellis. 
Mr. Geo. Bunyard in "The Fruit Garden" tells of 
carrying apple trees up over the slate roof of an out- 
building, with marked success. The fruit-bearing 
portion of the trees, lying there on the slate roof 
beautifully exposed to the sun above, and assisted 
by the heat absorbed and radiated by the slate, yielded 
large crops of apples of very superior quality. 

SOME DISADVANTAGES 

There are, of course, some disadvantages in growing 
dwarf fruit trees, and these should be examined with 
as much care as the advantages. The more important 
ones are as follows : 

I. Greater expense. — The trees are somewhat harder 
to propagate, and therefore cost more. There is no 
general demand for them in America, so that they 
are carried by only a few nurseries and are not looked 
upon as staple goods even with those dealers ; and 
on this account the price is necessarily increased. Thus 
each tree costs more than a similar tree of the same 
age and variety propagated in the usual way. But the 
greatest increase of expense comes from the fact that 
many more trees are required to plant the same area. 
There is often an advantage, as already argued, in 
planting more trees to the acre, but it costs something 
to gain this advantage. An acre of ground can be 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 1 9 

planted with thirty-five standard apple trees set thirty- 
five feet apart each way, and these trees will cost, 
roughly estimating retail prices at $12 a hundred, $4.20. 
To plant an acre to dwarf apple trees, setting them 
six feet apart each way, which is about as thick as 
these trees should ever be planted, will require 1,210 
trees. Estimating the retail price roughly at $15 a 
hundred this would make the first cost $181.50 — a 
considerably greater initial investment in the orchard. 
2. TJic trees are sJiorfer lived. — This statement is 
true for certain kinds of dwarf trees, but not for others. 
Certain varieties of pears, for example, which do not 
unite well with the quince root, naturally make short 
lived trees. On the. other hand other varieties of 
pears appear to live as long and thrive fully as well 
on quince roots as on pear roots. There is a common 
belief, especially in England, that apples worked on 
French paradise roots are apt to be short-lived. The 
nurserymen who hold this belief contend, however, 
that the so-called English Paradise, more properly 
called Doucin, supplies a stock on which apples will 
live to as great an age as on any other stock what- 
ever. There is some evidence to show that vigorous 
varieties of plums worked on Americana roots or on 
dwarf sand cherry are shorter lived than the same 
varieties on freer growing stocks. In many cases, 
however, dwarf trees live as long as standards ; and 
in almost all cases they live long enough. 
. 3. Tlicy require more care. — This objection stands 
particularly against the dwarf trees trained in special 
and intricate forms. Such trees undoubtedly do re- 
quire more careful attention, more frequent going- 



20 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

over, and more hand work in the course of the year. 
It is probably not true that apples, pears, plums or 
peaches in bush or pyramid forms require any more 
labor or attention than standard trees to secure equally 
good results. On the other hand it must not be for- 
gotten, as has already been pointed out, that whatever 
care may be required is much more easily given the 
dwarf trees than the standards. 

4. Tliey arc not a commercial success. — This state- 
ment, too, though undoubtcdl}' having some truth in 
it, can not stand without qualification. It is certainly 
true that no one could grow ordinary varieties of 
apples, like Baldwin or Ben Davis for instance, on 
dwarf trees in competition with men who are growing 
the same varieties on standards. It is probably true 
that fancy varieties of apples can be grown with profit 
on dwarf trees, but even this can not be strongly urged. 
So far as apples are concerned the chief value of 
dwarf trees for modern commercial enterprises in 
America will come through their use as fillers between 
rows of standard trees. In the case of pears the 
situation is somewhat more favorable to dwarf trees. 
There are a number of orchards in this country where 
pears have been successfully grown for market, these 
many years, on dwarf trees. The famous and every- 
where planted Bartlett succeeds admirably on the 
quince stock wherever the soil is suited to it. No 
successful commercial orchards of dwarf peaches or 
plums can be cited in this country, individual trees 
of these kinds even being extremly rare ; yet there 
is good reason to suppose that under favorable condi- 
tions dwarf peaches and plums may have some com- 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 21 

mercial value. Such value may be more in the way 
of supplementing standard trees than in superseding 
them, but it is still worth consideration. So that, 
after all, when we say that dwarf fruit trees are not 
a commercial success we mean merely that they will 
not take the place of standard trees. The large market 
orchards must always continue to be made up of stan- 
dard trees ; but in their own way the dwarf trees will 
find a limited place even in commercial operations, 
and this use of them seems destined to be more general 
in the future than it has been in the past, 



Ill 

PROPAGATION 

The propagation of dwarf fruit trees is in some 
senses a more critical and interesting- problem than the 
propagation of ordinary nursery stock. The success- 
ful production of a dwarf fruit tree depends primarily 
on its propagation. The selection of stocks for dwarf- 
ing purposes is necessarily a complicated matter. 
Under the terms of the problem it is impossible that 
the stock and the cion which are wedded together 
should be very closely related. The stock must be 
distinctly different and pronouncedly dwarfer in his 
habit of growth. 

It is not always an easy matter to find a stock 
which is thus distinctly different from the tree which 
it is desired to grow and which will at the same time 
form with it a vigorous and long lived union. It is 
necessary further that the propagation can be carried 
on with ease and with a fair degree of success in com- 
mercial nurseries. If difficult methods of grafting 
are required, or if only a small stand of nursery trees 
can be secured, the undertaking becomes too expen- 
sive from the nurseryman's point of view. 

The methods of propagating dwarf trees are for the 
most part the same as those used in reproducing the 
same kinds of fruit on standard stocks. As a matter 
of fact nearly all dwarf trees are propagated by bud- 
ding. Apples, pears, and plums can be readily grafted, 



PROPAGATION 2^ 

but budding is simpler, speedier, and usually the 
cheaper process in the nursery. In the upper Missis- 
sippi Valley, where plums are somewhat extensively 
worked on Americana plum roots, grafting is rather 
common. The side graft and the whip graft are the 
forms most used. 

■ The theory of the production of a dwarf fruit tree 
by the restraining of its growth has already been 
mentioned in another chapter. The dwarf stock 
simply supplies less food than is required for the 
normal growth of the variety under propagation, and 
the tree is, in a sense, starved or stunted into its dwarf 
stature. 

As the selection of proper stocks — the adaptation 
of stock to cion — is one of the fundamental problems 
in dwarf fruit growing, we may now address our- 
selves to that. We will take up the different classes 
of fruit in order. 

THE APPLE 

Everyone who has observed the wild or native 
apples which grow in New England pastures must 
frequently have noticed certain dwarf and slow-grow- 
ing specimens. It it not difficult to find such which 
do not reach a height of five feet in ten years of 
unobstructed growth. If the cions of ordinary varie- 
ties of apples like Greening and Winesap should be 
grafted upon these stocks, the result would be a dwarf 
Greening or Winesap. If these dwarf wild apples 
could be produced with certainty and at a low price, 
they would furnish a source of supply for dwarf apple 
stocks. 



24 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

The Paradise apple so-called (Fig. 7) is simply one 
of these dwarf varieties which can be reproduced freely 
and cheaply. This reproduction is secured nearly al- 
ways by means of mound layerage. As the variety 
does not come true to seed, any more than such varie- 
ties as King or Hubbardston do, some such method- 
of propagation is necessary. This Paradise apple is 
naturally inclined to stool out somewhat from the 
roots. This habit is encouraged by cutting the plants 
back to the ground. When the young shoots are 
thrown up they are banked up with a hoe or by 
plowing furrows up against the rows of plants. The 
young shoots then form roots at the base and these 
rooted shoots or layers are removed when one year 
old. They are then planted in nursery rows in the 
spring, where they are usually budded the following 
July or August. 

These Paradise stocks are largely grown in France. 
Practically all the supply comes from that country. 
The nurserymen who grow dwarf apple trees in Ame- 
rica import their stocks from France during the winter, 
plant them in nursery rows early in the spring, bud 
the stocks the following July or August, and have 
the dwarf apple trees for sale the second year follow- 
*ing. 

This Paradise is the dwarfest stock known for 
apples. Its effect on nearly all varieties is very marked, 
causing them to form very small trees and to bear 
very early. Some of the more vigorous varieties, like 
Northern Spy for instance, do not submit kindly to 
such treatment. For this, or possibly for more rec- 
ondite reasons, a few varieties do not succeed well on 




FIG. 7 — PARADISE APPLE STOCKS IN EARLY SPRING 



26 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

Paradise roots. The writer would be glad to give 
a list of such varieties which are not adapted to the 
Paradise stock, but confesses he is unable to do so. 

The Doucin stock is simply another variety of dwarf 
apple. It is more vigorous and larger growing than 
the Paradise, and, therefore, produces a tree, when 
ordinary varieties are grafted upon it, about midway 
in size between the ordinary standard apple and the 
same variety growing upon Paradise. 

This Doucin is sometimes called the English or 
Broad-Leaved Paradise, but this name is misleading. 
It will be well to remember this in buying stocks or 
in buying trees in England. Dwarf apples are largely 
propagated in England, but the trees which are said 
to be on Paradise roots are often on Doucin. This 
confusion comes about from the Englishman's habit 
of calling Doucin the Broad-Leaved Paradise. 

The Doucin is perhaps better for the free-growing 
bush form trees, especially where excessive dwarfing 
is not needed. For orchard planting in the United 
States this Doucin stock would be likely to suit many 
growers better than Paradise. For trees which are 
to be kept within very narrow bounds, or those which 
are to be trained in particular forms, the Paradise 
stock is better. For all sorts of cordon apple trees, 
the Paradise is essential. 

THE PEAR 

Dwarf pears are always propagated on quince roots. 
Any kind of a quince may be used as a stock for pears, 
but the one commonly employed by nurserymen is the 
Angers quince, named after Angers, France, from 



PROPAGATION 2/ 

which place the supply largely comes. Almost all 
the quince stocks used by nurserymen in America are 
imported from France. As in dealing with apple 
stocks, the importation is made during the winter, the 
stocks are planted in nursery rows in the early spring, 
and are usually budded in July or August of the same 
year. 

A few varieties of pears do not make good unions 
with the quince. In some cases this antipathy is over- 
come by the expedient of double-working. The quince 
root is first budded with some variety which unites 
well with it. After this pear cion has grown one year, 
the refractory variety is budded upon this pear shoot. 
The complete tree, when it leaves the nursery, con- 
sists of three pieces, — a quince root below, a pear 
top above, and a short section of only one or two 
inches in length of some other variety of pear which 
simply holds together the two essential parts of the 
tree. 

This practise of double-working is sometimes under- 
taken with other kinds of fruit for special purposes. 
There are no other cases, however, in which it be- 
comes a generally recognized commercial practise. 

THE PEACH 

The peach is dwarfed by budding it upon almost any 
kind of a plum root, especially upon the smaller grow- 
ing species of plums. The stock most used is the 
ordinary Myrobalan plum. This is simply because 
the Myrobalan stock is commoner and cheaper. The 
St. Julien plum probably furnishes a better dwarfing 



28 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

stock for peaches, but it is more expensive and harder 
to work. 

The Americana pkim, now somewhat largely grown 
for stocks in the States of the upper Mississippi valley, 
furnishes a good dwarfing stock for the peach. Ac- 
cording to the writer's experience the Americana stock 
gives better results with peaches than either Myrobalan 
or St. Julien. It should be observed that this stock 
requires budding rather early in the season. 

The dwarf sand cherry, which is further discussed 
below under phmis, also makes a good stock for 
peaches. As this stock is very dwarf, it produces the 
smallest possible peach tree. The j^each cion rapidly 
overgrows the stock and the tree can hardly be ex- 
pected to be long lived. The growth is very vigorous 
and satisfactory during early years, however. I have 
not had an opportunity to determine how long peaches 
will live and thrive on this stock. 

Nectarines can be grown in dwarf form in exactly 
the same manner employed for peaches. 

THE PLUM 

In all the old books it is said that dwarf plum trees 
are secured by working on Myrobalan stocks. This 
statement is hardly true according to our present 
standards, and is certainly far from satisfactory. This 
rule came into vogue at the time when only large 
growing Domestica plums were propagated in this 
country and the stocks used were mostly either "horse 
plums" or Myrobalan. The Myrobalan stock does 
give a somewhat smaller tree than the old fashioned 
horse plums ; but this Myrobalan stock has been for 



PROPAGATION 2g 

many years the one principally used for propagating 
all kinds of plums in America. It has come to be 
looked upon as a standard rather than a dwarf stock. 
When we think of dwarf trees, therefore, we expect 
to see something smaller than what will grow under 
ordinary circumstances on a Myrobalan root. 

The Americana plum, already mentioned, is a first- 
rate stock in nearly all respects except that it can not 
be bought so cheaply as the ]\Iyrobalan. It is now 
grown to a considerable extent by nurserymen in 
Minnesota, Iowa and the neighboring States. If 
grafted, or budded early, all varieties of plums take 
well upon it. The trees on Americana roots make 
a good growth in the nurser}- and are easily trans- 
planted. The tree produced on this stock is only 
moderately dwarf. Still this dwarfing effect is always 
well marked, this result being shown by the over- 
growing of the cion. The top thus appears to out- 
grow the root, and such trees are apt to blow over 
during wind storms. Suitable precautions should be 
taken to guard against damage of this sort. 

Prof. A. T. Erwin of Iowa writes on this subject 
as follows : 

"Regarding the Americana as a plum stock, I would 
state that we are using it by the thousands out here ; 
in fact, have about quit using anything else. As a 
stock for the European and Japanese sorts, it does 
dwarf them, and the cion tends to outgrow the stock 
at the point of union, causing an enlargement. The 
union is also not very congenial, and they frequently 
break ofi on account of high winds. However, in my 



30 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



experience and observation, this is not the case when 
the Americana is used as a stock for Americana 
varieties. It does not dwarf the trees seriously and 

the union is splendid. It 
is by all odds the best 
stock we have for plums, 
and since we do not 
grow anything- but Amer- 
icana varieties, it works 
first rate. It does tend 
to sprout sonie, though 
there is little trouble in 




this 



regard 



after the 



FIG. 8 

THE WESTERN SAND CHERRY 

Pruniis piiniila besseyi 



trees come into bearing. 



The sand cherry seems 
to be the dwarfing stock 
par excellence for the 
plum. This sand cherry 
is a heterogeneous spe- 
cies, or as some botanists 
think, is three species, 
ranging throughout the 
Northern States from 
Alaine to Colorado. The 
narrow leaf upright form 
growing about five feet 



tall, known as Prunus pumila, is found along the 
Atlantic coast. The broad leafed dwarfer form known 
as Priimis pumila bcsscyi or P. besseyi, is found in 
the Western States. Another rarer form of more ir- 



PROPAGATI(3N 



31 



regular growth known as Pniiius pit mil a cuucata, or 
as P. cuncata, is found in the North Central States. 

All of these different forms may he used for prop- 
a g a t i n g plums or 
peaches. The western 
form (P. bcsscyi) (Fig. 
8) is in some respects 
the hest, producing the 
dwarf est and apparently 
the best trees. In our 
experience, h cj w e v e r, 
nearly all varieties of 
plums and peaches give 
a better stand of trees 
when budded on P. pii- 
niila. Pniiins cuncata is 
inferior to the others. 

The eastern form, P. 
p II mil a, has another ad- 
vantage from the stand- 
point of the nurseryman 
in that it is more easily 
propagated from cut- 
tings. For the most part 
the western sand cherry 
is propagated from seed. 
Both forms can be prop- 
agated from layers. 

NURSERY MANAGEMENT 

Dwarf trees are managed in the nursery very much 
the same as standards of the same varieties. There 
are no special points to be observed except in the 




FIG. 9 — UPRIGHT CORDON PLUM 
With buds set into the naked trunk 



32 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

formation of the tops. Western New York nursery- 
men, who now grow the principal supply of dwarf 
apple and pear trees, have the custom of forming their 
nursery stock with high heads. That is, the heads 
are formed at a height of eighteen inches to three 
feet from the ground. In this matter the pattern is 
taken after the usual style of standard trees. This 
is quite wrong. Of course, some planters might like 
to have dwarf trees widi trunks two or three feet tall, 
but the l)est form has a much shorter stem. At any 
rate the buyer of dwarf trees ought to be at liberty 
to form the head within three or four inches of the 
ground if he so desires. This becomes very difficult 
if the tree is once pruned up to a height of two or 
three feet. 

In order that the planter may reach his own ideal 
perfectly in this matter, it is sometimes necessary to 
buy one year old trees, what the English nurserymen 
call maidens. This, of course, enables the tree planter 
to form the head wherever he desires. 



IV 

PRUNING DWARF FRUIT TREES 

The pruning of dwarf fruit trees is a matter of the 
greatest consequence, for on proper pruning depend 
both the form and the productivity of the trees. Some 
of the details of management will be explained in the 
succeeding chapters, dealing with the particular kinds 
of fruits, but a few general statements should be set 
down here. 

I. The trees are severely headed in. This applies 
more particularly to bush and pyramid forms. By the 
term "heading in" we refer to the shortening of the 
leaders. Such shortening is usually given at the 
spring pruning, while the trees are dormant. The 
leaders may be headed in at times, however, during 
the latter part of the growing season, in July. Such 
stopping of growing leaders will be practised more 
often on young trees just coming into bearing than 
on old trees. (Fig. lo). Constant heading back of 
some sort, however, is required in nearly all cases, if 
the tree is to be retained in its dwarf form. The mis- 
take has often been made of thinking that a tree 
propagated on a dwarf root would take care of itself. 
2. Summer pruning is essential. In most Amer- 
ican orchard practise one annual pruning (some- 
times one pruning every five years!) is considered 
sufficient, and systematic summer pruning is seldom 
or never given. Now summer pruning tends much 

23 









Iv^ 




< 

1 

1^* 


* 




.# 


t ■ 


. . ,^ ,-^ 



FIG. 10 — BUSH APPLE. THREE YEARS OLD 
Showing strong leaders formed during the summer 



PRUNING DWARF FRUIT TREES 35 

more to repress the growth of a tree than winter 
pruning- does. In fact, heavy winter pruning leads 
rather to increased vegetative vigor. Aside from any 
special system of pruning, therefore, this rule is to 
be remembered, that summer pruning is desirable, on 
general principles, for dwarf fruit trees. 

3. Side shoots usually need pinching during the 
growing season. Leaders are more frequently allowed 
to grow unchecked throughout the season, or are 
stopped only late in their period of development. In 
the pomaceous fruits, which form distinct fruit spurs, 
the checking of these side shoots helps toward the 
production of fruit buds. As long as every bud is 
allowed to push out into a strong shoot no fruit spurs 
can become established. Thus the summer pinching 
of the side shoots on apples and pears has the pur- 
pose of encouraging the formation of fruit spurs. On 
peach and plum trees equally distinct fruit spurs do 
not form ; but if the side shoots are allowed to push 
forth unrestricted they are apt to choke one another. 
There will be too many of them, they will not get light 
enough, their growth will be weak and sappy, and they 
will not form fruit buds. Good fruit buds on a peach 
tree, for example, form on strong, clean, healthy shoots 
of this year's growth for next year's crop of fruit. It 
is seen, therefore, that in nearly all sorts of dwarf fruit 
trees the summer pruning is especially directed to the 
suppression or regulation of the growth of side shoots. 

This part of the treatment becomes of prime im- 
portance in dealing with cordons and espaliers. 

4. The control of the fruit spurs or of the side 
shoots here contemplated requires that the trees be 



36 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

gone over more than once during the growing season. 
In fact, four successive examinations of the tree are 
usually required. Old trees can sometimes be man- 
aged with two or three, but young ones, on the other 
hand, will sometimes require six or more. Of course, 
there are usually only a few shoots that need attention 
at each succeeding visit, and the work can be very 
rai)idly performed. The first pruning, or pinching, 
falls about three weeks after the trees have started 
into growth. The next one comes ten days later, the 
next one ten days later again, and the fourth pruning 
two weeks after the third. From this time onward the 
intervals lengthen. These specifications, of course, 
are only approximate and suggestive. Some judg- 
ment is required to select just the proper moment for 
pinching back a shoot and even more to select the 
time for a general summer pruning. Those trees 
which enjoy the sympathetic presence of the gardener 
every day are sure to fare best. The bulk of this 
pruning can be done with the thumb nail and fore- 
finger, but I find a light pair of pruning scissors 
pleasanter to work with. 

5. Root pruning is sometimes advisable. Since the 
whole program is arranged to check the growth of 
the dwarf tree, root pruning would naturally fit well 
with the other practises recommended. Root pruning 
checks the growth of a tree about as positively as 
any treatment that can be devised. When dwarf pear 
or apple trees seem to be making too much wood 
growth and not enough fruit, they can be taken- up, 
as for transplanting, during the dormant season and 
set right back into place. This digging up and re- 





K 'S 

1-1 3 

Or *-■ 

< (L» 

^ . 

I ? 






38 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

planting is always accompanied by some cutting of 
roots. The whole root system is disturbed and has to 
re-establish itself before the top vegetates very strongly 
once more. Such root pruning ought to be done late 
in the fall. It is a special practice, suited to re- 
fractory cases, and the gardener is not recommended 
to indulge in it too freely. 

6. A certain equilibrium between vegetative growth 
and fruit bearing should be established at the earliest 
possible moment, and should be maintained thereafter. 
Of course, some such equilibrium is sought in the 
management of a standard tree; but it is secured 
earlier in the life of the dwarf tree and should be 
much more accurately maintained. The tree must 
make a certain amount of growth each year, but this 
must be only enough to keep it in good health, and 
to furnish foliage enough to mature the fruit. Beyond 
this wood growth the tree should bear a certain 
amount of fruit every year, for annual bearing is not 
only an ideal but a rule in the management of dwarf 
trees. This equilibrium once established must be 
maintained not by haphazard pruning, but by some 
suitable system. If there is the proper balance between 
summer pruning and winter pruning, combined with 
proper control of cultivation and fertilization, then 
the balance between vegetation and fruitage can be 
kept up. It is a delicate business, like courting two 
girls at once, but it can be carried out successfully. 

7. The training of trees into mathematical forms 
is largely a mechanical process. For the most part 
the trees are shaped while they are growing. The 
young shoots are twisted and bent to the desired 



40 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

positions, and are tied into place until the stems be- 
come hardened. There are many clever little tricks 
for expediting this sort of work and for making the 
results more sure, but a rehearsal of them here would 
be tedious. The most important rule to remember is 
that constant attention must be given the shoots while 
they are growing. Mistakes are corrected with diffi- 
culty after an undesirable form has been allowed to 
harden. 



SPECIAL FORMS FOR TRAINED TREES 

We have already explained the connection between 
dwarf trees and the practise of training them in 
special forms. It is true that this practise looks child- 
ish to American eyes. It seems to be only a kind of 
play, and a rather juvenile sport at that. Never- 
theless we should understand that in some parts of 
the world it is a real and profitable commercial under- 
taking. We should consider also that in other places, 
where fruit of very high quality is better appreciated, 
perhaps, than it is in America, the extra trouble is 
thought to be worth while for the superior quality 
which it gives the fruit. As this matter is coming to 
be of more importance in America also, and as the 
interest in amateur fruit growing is enormously in- 
creasing, we may fairly begin to talk about these 
methods. 

The formation of trees into bushes and pyramids, 
by means of systematic pruning according to a def- 
inite plan, as explained in the succeeding chapters, 
while apparently simpler and more reasonable to our 
American eyes, it is still a method of training the tree. 
The fruiting branches are placed at definite points 
and the fruit spurs are encouraged to grow in regular 
succession. It is not a very great step from this to 
a distribution of the branches into a more precise form. 

41 



42 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

The different forms which are used most commonly 
are named and classified in the following outline: 

A. — Forms of three dimensions: 
a. Vase or bush 
h. Pyramid 

c. Winged pyramid, etc. 
B. — Forms of hvo dimensions: 

a. Various espaliers 

b. Palmette-Verrier 

e. Fans or Fan-espaliers 

d. U-form and double U-form 
C. — Trained to a single stem: 

a. Upright cordon 

b. Oblique cordon 

e. Horizontal cordon 

(with one arm) 
(with two arms) 
d. Serpentine cordon, etc. 

Among the* forms of three dimensions none is of 
much practical importance besides the pyramid and 
bush or vase form. These are sufficiently explained 
in the chapters on pears and apples. Here we need 
only to define them. The pyramid tree is one which 
has a straight central stem with branches radiating 
therefrom. It is especially adapted to upright grow- 
ing varieties of pears. The bush or vase form has 
several inain arms or branches, all standing out from 
approximately the same point and growing upward 
at a more or less acute angle, thus forming roughly 
a vase. The secondary branches put out froin these, 
bearing fruiting wood, as the gardener may order. 

The flying pyramid or winged pyramitl, described 
in all European books, is considerably different from 



SPECIAL FORMS FOR TRAINED TREES 



43 



the ordinary pyramid and is more precise in its de- 
sign. Usually six arms are brought out at the base 
of the tree. These are grown in a direction approxi- 
mately horizontal until they reach a convenient length, 
— say two to three feet. They are then suddenly bent 




FIG. 15 — PEARS IN DOUBLE U-FORM 
From I^oebner's " Zwergobstbaume" 



Upward and inward and are conducted along wires 
set for this purpose until they meet in a common point 
with the main stem of the tree some four to eight feet 
above where the branches put out. There is thus 
formed a precise mathematical pyramid. Along these 



44 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

main arms fruiting spurs are allowed to grow, but 
no branches are expected to develop. 

Sometimes the flying pyramid is made more elab- 
orate b}' bending the arms into a spiral form. Other 
more or less complex modifications are practised to 
some extent. All of them are to be regarded merely 
as curiosities and as of no practical value. 

The various forms of espaliers and fan-shaped trees 
have their special and legitimate uses. It may be said 
here that the Palmette-Verrier is regarded generally 
as being the most successful for the largest number of 
varieties of fruits. It is a safe rule also that the 
simpler forms are generally the better. With rare 
exceptions a tree confined to a moderately small space 
is more satisfactory than one trained over a large space. 

Great care must be exercised in forming these trees. 
If the geometrical style of training is undertaken at 
all, it should be carried out with considerable pre- 
cision. If one arm happens to be placed a little higher, 
or at a little more moderate angle, or otherwise more 
favorably than the corresponding arm, it will very 
soon divert to its own use the major portion of food 
supplied by the top. It will outgrow its mate and 
the form which the gardener designed will eventually 
be lost. It will be seen at once that this condition 
makes the same care and precision necessary in all 
forms of training. 

The U-form classifies somewhere between the cor- 
don and the espalier. It consists of two upright 
branches joined to a single trunk below by an arc 
of a circle. The fruit is all borne on the two parallel 



46 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

stems which arc treated essentially the same as up- 
right cordons. (Fig. 17.) 

The double U-form is made by growing two U's 
from the same tree. The stem, is first divided near 
the ground into two branches and each of these is 
immediately divided into two more. The tree thus 
provides four parallel and equally spaced upright and 
fruiting stems equal to four upright cordons, except 
that they are all supported from a single trunk. The 
U- and double U-forms are employed mostly for 
plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines. 

One occasionally sees much more elaborate schemes 
of training than any here mentioned. There are com- 
plex geometrical designs, even pictorial figures — birds, 
dogs, and beer-steins — and sometimes the initials of 
the gardener, or the name of his kingly and imperial 
majesty. In every case the method of producing these 
forms is practically the same. A frame is built of 
wood or wire in the form which it is desired to give 
the tree. Branches are developed at suitable points 
on the tree and these are tied out while they are grow- 
ing to the wooden or metal form. It does not require 
any special care or ingenuity to produce the most 
elaborate designs in this method. It is essentially a 
job of carpentry. 

We come now to the cordons. If we take the 
simplest form, namely the upright cordon, we have 
what we may call a tree of one dimension only. The 
upright cordon has nothing but height, eschewing both 
breadth and thickness. A cordon is simply a tree 
trained to a single stem and this stem may be placed 
in any position. The position or direction of the stem 




FiG. 17 — APRICOTS IN U-FORM 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



classifies the cordon. There are, therefore, besides 
the upright cordon, others which are obHque, that is, 
which make an angle with the horizontal, those which 
are horizontal, and those which are bent into various 




FIG. l8 — PEAR IN ESPALIER 
This tree is carrying over 200 fruits 

forms. The serpent form is one of the simplest of 
these. This form of cordon is simply bent back and 
forth against a trellis forming a series of S's one above 
another. The horizontal cordons are of two varieties, 
namely one-arm and two-arm forms. It is altogether 
a matter of convenience which one of these forms is 
chosen. 



50 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

In conclusion it may be pointed out that the slower 
growing trees, pears and apples, are the better suited 
to the more elaborate forms of training. The more 
free and rapid growing species, such as peaches, nec- 
tarines, cherries, and Japanese plums, are better man- 
aged in somewhat simpler forms, preferably the fan. 
Such trees do well, however, in the U-form or double 
U-form. 



VI 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT 

The general management of dwarf trees is naturally 
very much like the management of ordinary standard 
trees. As dwarf trees are grown more often in 
gardens rather than in orchards they will receive 
garden treatment. Heavy tools and extensive methods 
of culture will hardly find application. 

Good soil culture may be regarded as essential. 
Whatever some American fruit growers may be say- 
ing about the propriety of growing apple orchards in 
sod, no one has yet undertaken to adapt the sod 
system into the kitchen garden. The close planting 
which is customary with dwarf trees makes culture 
comparatively difficult, yet not unreasonably so. 
Apple and pear trees planted six feet apart each way 
can be worked for several years with a single horse 
and cultivator. In fact if the trees are kept carefully 
headed in, the time need never come when the culti- 
vator will have to be abandoned. When cordons or 
espaliers are planted in a garden large enough to 
warrant horse cultivation under ordinary circumstances 
then the rows of trained trees should be set six feet 
apart, which will be enough to permit the continued 
use of the horse and cultivator between the rows. 
However, the horse cultivator is certain to be def- 
initely crowded out of some dwarf fruit gardens. 
Many of the men who have greatest reason for grow- 

51 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT 



53 



ing dwarf fruit trees are those whose backyard gardens 
were never large enough to justify the presence of a 



ooooooooooo 




o o o o o o o 

OOOOCXXXXDOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOCXX) 



wjl. 



t^fy 



FIG. 21 — DESIGN FOR A BACK YARD FRUIT GARDEN 50 FT. SQUARE 

North fence (top of map>, peach espalier (4); Row i, bush apple (7); Row 
2. pyramid pear (7); Row 3, currants and gooseberries (11); Row 4 and 5, 
horizontal cordon apples, with grass walk between ; Row 6, raspberry- 
bushes (7) ; Row 7, strawberries ; Row 8, plums in bush form (7) ; Row 9, 
apples in horizontal cordons (4); East fence, apples as upright cordons (31); 
West fence, pears in espalier. 

horse or horse tools. In such cases the spading fork 
and the hand cultivator are the ready and proper 
substitutes. Our extensive methods of farming in 



54 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

America have bred a strong prejudice against all sorts 
of hand labor like this, but experience will show that 
mider some conditions it is quite worth Avhile. \ 
very common mistake in all kinds of agriculture is 
to allow prejudice to rule experience. 

Garden culture means not only good tillage of the 
soil, but good treatment in other respects. It means 
good feeding and good spraying. As for spraying 
we need make only two observations. First, the 
treatment to be given is almost precisely the same 
as that which is given to standard trees of the same 
species ; second, the work is much more easily per- 
formed because the trees are smaller. If one happens 
to have a considerable block of dwarf trees closely 
planted. There may be difficulty, it is true, in driving 
in with a spray pump. This dilificultj^ is overcome by 
having long runs of hose on the spray pump, so that 
the cart may stand on the borders of the garden while 
the operator carries the nozzle in among the trees. 
In case of large plantings of dwarf trees alley-ways 
should be left every one hundred feet, or better, every 
eighty feet, between the blocks. These alleys will 
be useful for other purposes besides spraying. 

In the management of a small garden the gardener 
is expected to be liberal in his allowance of fertili- 
zers. While it is true that dwarf fruit trees should 
be liberally fed there is a possibility of overdoing 
it. It has already been explained that the dwarfing 
of the tree depends in a certain way on its well-regu- 
lated starvation. If the tree top could get all the 
food which its nature calls for it would not be dwarfed. 
The rule in feeding dwarf fruit trees therefore should 



J L 




FIG. 22 — DWARF FRUIT GARDEN III BY I44 FEET 
From lyucas' Handbuch des Obstbaues 



56 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

be to give enough fertilizer to keep them in perfect 
health and in good growing condition, but not enough 
to force unnecessary growth. Fertilizer rich in nitro- 
gen should be especially avoided, and, as the object in 
view is to secure an early maturity of the tree and to 
produce fruit always in preference to wood, a larger 
proportion of potash would naturally be substituted 
for the diminished proportion of nitrogen. Of course 
the amounts and proportions of the different elements 
(nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid) to be applied 
will vary greatly with different conditions, — with the 
nature of the soil, the age of the trees, etc. As a sort 
of standard we may say that under normal conditions 
of good soil with dwarf apple and pear trees in bearing 
there should be given annually for each acre : 

400 pounds ground bone 
400 pounds muriate of potash 
100 pounds Peruvian guano 

Peaches and plums require more nitrogen during 
early growth, and more potash when in full bearing. 
For a new plantation of these trees the following 
amounts should be given annually for each acre : 

300 pounds ground bone 
400 pounds muriate of potash 
150 pounds nitrate of soda 

For peach and plum trees in bearing, the following 

formula may be suggested : 

400 pounds ground bone 
500 pounds muriate of potash 
100 pounds Peruvian guano 

Inasmuch as many owners of dwarf fruit trees will 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT 57 

have so much less than an acre for treatment it will 
be best to repeat these formulas, reducing them to a 
smaller unit. Making this reduction somewhat freely, 
in order to avoid long and useless decimals, we may 
compute the quantity needed annually for each one 
hundred square feet of land as follows : 

FOR APPLES AND PEARS IN BEARING 

I -pound ground bone 
I pound muriate of potash 
% pound Peruvian guano 

FOR PEACHES AND PLUMS NEWLY PLANTED 

y^. pound ground bone 

I pound muriate of potash 
}i pound nitrate of soda 

FOR PEACHES AND PLUMS IN BEARING 

54 pound Peruvian guano 
1% pound muriate of potash 
I pound ground bone 

Cherries should be treated like plums ; gooseberries, 
currants, and most other fruits, like apples. 

In the home of dwarf tree culture, that is, in Europe, 
trained trees are extensively grown upon walls. The 
gardeners utilize for this purpose not only the walls 
of stables and outbuildings, and of the enclosed gar- 
dens, but long ranges of brick are built for the special 
and exclusive purpose of accommodating fruit trees. 
In southern Germany, in Switzerland, in Belgium, in 
France, and especially in the neighborhood of Paris, 
there are hundreds of miles of these walls. The walls 
may run north and south or east and west. Both 
sides of the walls are used, even when one side faces 
the north. Currants and gooseberries are expected to 



58 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

thrive on north walls. West walls are considered espe- 
cially favorable for pears and plums. The walls are 
nearly always built of brick. They should have a 
height of ten to fourteen feet. Each wall usually has 
a coping at the top with a projection of ten to eighteen 
inches, which sheds the rain, protecting both the wall 
and the fruit trees. Where extreme pains are spent 
on the culture of fancy table fruits there are curtains 
hung from rods along the outer edge of these copings, 
and the curtains are drawn to protect ripening fruit 
from too hot sunshine, or to protect the blossoms in 
the spring season from late frosts. 

Brick walls, with all their appurtenances, are less 
important in America than in Europe and the advan- 
tages to be expected from this particular method of 
culture are decidedly less. Walls would more proba- 
bly be useful for peaches and nectarines in northern 
latitudes than for any other fruits. 

Cordons and espaliers require some sort of sup- 
port, however, and where walls are not used trellises 
are necessary. These may be of wood or wire. There 
is a belief current that the wooden trellises are better 
because they reflect less heat, but wire is so much 
cheaper and more durable that it will usually be chosen. 

Five or six wires are needed to make a good trellis 
for upright cordons. These should be placed twelve 
to fourteen inches apart, with the lowest wire thirty 
inches from the ground. All wires should be tight, 
and to this end stout, well-set posts are necessary. 
The wires should be loosened in the autumn, before 
freezing weather begins, and should be tightened again 
in the spring. 






mm 




PIG 23 — FRUIT GARD?iNING AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING COMBINED 
From IvUcas' Handbuch des Obstbaues 
The entire planting, exclusive of the borders, is made up of fruit trees 
and bushes. Dimensions, 752 x 1,362 feet. 



60 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

For espaliers the woven wire fences are better. In 
fact, the woven wire fencing is excellent for all sorts 
of fruit trellises. Poultry netting makes a cheap and 
convenient trellis, but it is neither so strong nor so 
durable as the better grades of woven wire fencing. 
On the whole it is very poor economy to buy a cheap 
trellis or to put it up on poor posts. 

These trellises will need to be comparatively high. 
Nothing less than eight feet will be satisfactory, and 
for upright cordons a trellis ten to fifteen feet high 
will be much better. Of course, this entire height is 
not needed the first year, but upright cordon apples 
will cover a twelve foot trellis in five years. Peaches 
or Japanese plums will cover the same trellis in three 
years. 

In the selection of varieties for growing in a garden 
of dwarf fruit trees the horticulturist will naturally 
be guided by principles altogether different from 
those which control him in the selection of varieties 
for a commercial orchard. He must, of course, con- 
sider which varieties are best adapted to the special 
stocks on which they have to be propagated. He must 
also bear in mind that certain varieties are better 
adapted than others for the special forms in which 
he may wish to train his dwarf trees. Beyond all 
this lies the great consideration that in the very large 
majority of cases dwarf fruit trees are grown to secure 
fancy fruit, not to produce a large quantity for a 
general market. All varieties of inferior quality would 
therefore be eliminated from consideration at the be- 
ginning, no matter how productive they might be, 
nor how famous for other things. 




25 50 tOOi 150 

FIG. 24 — A FRUIT GARDEN CONTAINING MANY DWARF TREES 

A is the entrance ; B, well or cistern ; C, space to turn a horse and cart. 

From P. Barry's "Fruit Garden" 



62 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

Varieties of specially good flavor would be given 
special thought, even though they might lack in hardi- 
ness or productivity. The special favorites of the 
man who owns the garden should be chosen, no 
matter whether they are popular or not. Then for 
similar reasons a comparatively long list of varieties 
will be chosen instead of the very short list always 
held to by the commercial grower. From first to last 
one should remember that the growing of dwarf fruit 
trees is essentially the enterprise of an amateur, not 
of a man who grows fruit for money. 



VII 

DWARF APPLES 

Dwarf apples are the most interesting and valuably 
of dwarf fruits. We have become so thoroughly ac- 
customed to the standard apple tree in this country, 
however, and it so fully meets all the apparent re- 
quirements, that there seems to be no call for dwarf 
apples. Nevertheless dwarf trees have some real ad- 
vantages under certain circumstances. Some of these 
have already been pointed out in the general discus- 
sion in previous chapters, and some of them will bear 
reiteration here. Where so much interest is taken 
in apple culture as in America, the advantage which 
dwarf trees offer for the rapid testing of new varieties 
cannot be overlooked. Still more important is the 
value of the dwarf trees in producing extra fancy 
specimens. Thus in growing very fine apples for ex- 
hibition or for a particularly fastidious market, one 
would naturally choose the dwarf trees. 

Inasmuch as dwarf trees are recommended chiefly 
to the amateur and are grown generally less for cash 
profit than for other considerations, the great and ob- 
vious advantages of standard trees quickly disappear. 
For men who like to play at fruit growing, nothing 
can equal a selection of apple trees on Paradise stocks. 
They are the most engaging of all dwarf trees, in fact 
of all fruit trees whatsoever. 

The general matter of selecting stocks has been 

b3 



64 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

referred to under the head of propagation, but the 
statement should be repeated here that the French 
Paradise stock is preferable for very dwarf garden 
trees, and is almost necessary for cordons and espaliers, 
while the Doucin (sometimes called the English or 
broad-leaved Paradise) may be chosen where only 
a moderate amount of dwarfing is desired. Some of 
the most expert apple growers of North America are 
beginning to think that the Doucin may be required 
for the commercial orchards in the future, when spray- 
ing for the San Jose scale becomes an established 
routine and smaller trees are an accepted necessity. 

Dwarf apple trees may be cultivated in nearly all 
the artificial forms ever given to fruit trees. Un- 
doubtedly the simplest is the bush or vase form. This 
requires less care and attention and probably gives 
as much fruit to the same area as any other. The 
pyramid form is somewhat difficult to produce. It 
can be secured successfully only with the varieties 
which have a tendency to grow strong, straight 
branches, as for instance Sutton, Gravenstein and 
Northern Spy. On the whole the pyramid is not to 
be recommended for dwarf apples. 

Apples succeed very well as upright cordons and 
in all the simpler modifications of this form. As these 
trees can be planted very close together — as close as 
fifteen inches certainly — thus occupying very little 
room, a large number of them can be planted in very 
limited areas of the city lot or backyard. They are 
especially adapted to stand on the property line where 
they seem to use no space whatever, and where in 
fact they do occupy space which otherwise would be 



DWARF APPLES 



65 



lost. The upright cordon can be bent into the form of 
an arch in order to make dehghtful arbors along the 
walks. The illustration, Fig. 2, shows a good ex- 
ample of this sort. 

Nearly all varieties of apples — indeed all as far 
as I know — succeed in this form. The trees are not 




FIG. 25 — DWARF APPLES ON PROF. L. H. BAILEYS FARM, NEW YORK 



very long-lived, however. That is they cannot be 
maintained in good presentable form and prolific bear- 
ing indefinitely, because it is difficult to reproduce 
the fruit spurs on the lower part of the stem. Never- 
theless the trees are inexpensive and can be cheaply 
replaced. As they come into bearing the first or 
second year after planting, this task of replacing worn- 



66 DWARF FRUIT TREEb 

out trees is a small one. \'ery fine specimens of fruit 
can be produced on these upright cordons. Indeed this 
form is superior to the bush form in this respect. 

The apple is the best of all trees fcr horizontal cor- 
dons. In this form it becomes the most entertaining 
plaything in the garden, as well as one of the most 
rewarding trees in its product of fruit. Either the 
single arm or the double arm cordon can be used with 
success. These horizontal cordons are naturally used 
along the borders of walks, flower beds or plots de- 
voted to vegetables. The\' may sometimes be used 
along foundations of buildings, where it is not desired 
to grow upright cordons or espaliers against the walls. 
The fruit produced by horizontal cordons is probably 
superior in size, color and finish to that produced on 
any other form of tree. In climates where the sum- 
mer's heat and sunshine are apt to be meager, this 
advantage of the horizontal cordon will be compara- 
tively greater. Conversely it will be less in places 
where sunshine and heat are very abundant during 
the summer. It is probably true that on the plains of 
Arizona and Texas the horizontal cordon will not be 
a brilliant success. 

Dwarf apples need practically the same care and 
cultivation, aside from pruning, as standard apples. 
The soil should be cultivated during the early part 
of the summer and allowed to rest during the latter 
part of the year. Cover crops may be sown during 
June or July, according t(j the custom practised in the 
usual orchard management ; but the advantages of 
a cover crop in a small garden are less material than 
in a large commercial orchard. 




FIG. 26 — UPRIGHT CORDON APPLES 
iS inches apart ; in author's garden 



68 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

The formation of the tree is discussed under another 
head. It remains to be said only that careful and 
intelligent pruning are required to keep any dwarf 
apple tree to its work. The more complicated and 
the more restricted the form of the tree, the more 
careful and continuous must be this pruning. The 
general system may be outlined in comparatively few 
words, and may be explained in its simplest form as 
applied to the treatment of a horizontal cordon. Each 
horizontal cordon, perfectly formed and full grown, 
should have fruit spurs throughout its horizontal 
length, which may be from three to fifteen feet. The 
upright portion of the trunk, from the point where 
the graft is set to the angle made by the bending down 
of the stem, should be kept clean and bare. Constant 
care is required to remove the sprouts from this por- 
tion of the tree, especially such as come up from the 
stock. At the further end of the horizontal portion 
there should be one, two, or three strong shoots 
allowed to push forth each year. These may be 
called leaders. They represent the principal wood 
growth in each tree. They draw up the sap from the 
roots, their leaves elaborate this sap, and from them 
the digested material is sent back for the support of 
the tree and the ripening of the fruit. They are al- 
lowed to take an upright or nearly upright position 
and their growth is encouraged. On all other por- 
tions of the tree growth is sternly restricted, when 
not altogether repressed. 

There is a constant tendency for strong shoots to 
start into growth all along the horizontal part of the 
stem and especially near the bend. If any of these 



DWARF APPLES 



69 



shoots are allowed to make headway, the form of 
the tree is spoiled. Even if they are cut out after a 
year's growth, thus retaining- somewhat the form of 
the tree, the fruit spurs are thereby lost. It is the busi- 
ness of the fruit grower, therefore, to pinch back these 
shoots which start along the horizontal stem, and 
this pinching is done at a comparatively early stage 
of their growth. Usually the first pinching should be 
given when the stems have grown long enough so 
as to have seven or eight leaves. These shoots are then 
cut or pinched back to three leaves. If the tree is in 
good vigorous condition, these shoots will soon start 
into growth once more. Again they have to be 
pinched. This time the pinching comes a little earlier, 
taking the shoot when it reaches only about five 
leaves and the pinching is still more severe. The 
shoots may start into growth a third time or even a 
fourth time, but each time they are pinched back 
sooner and more severely than before. In most cases 
two or three pinchings will suffice. These constant 
repressions of growth tend to secure the formation 
of fruit spurs and fruit buds along the horizontal 
trunk of the tree. 

Some slight modifications of the plan here out- 
lined will develop themselves in experience. In par- 
ticular it will be found that different varieties require 
slightly different handling. Some form fruit spurs 
more readily than others. With certain varieties it 
is very difficult to repress the rampant habit of growth 
and to secure a proper formation of fruit buds. These 
differences, however, are of minor importance as 
compared with the general management of the tree. 



yO DWARF FRUIT TREES 

The system just outlined has in view the summer 
pruning of the horizontal cordon apple. The upright 
cordon is pruned in almost exactly the same manner. 
Various forms of espaliers are handled in much the 
same way. Strong shoots or leaders are allowed to 
grow at the ends of the main branches to keep up a 
proper circulation and elaboration of sap, while the 
growth of fruit spurs is encouraged along the sides 
of the stems b}- frequent and regular pruning. 

In a somewhat less precise manner the same system 
of pruning can be applied to bush and pyramid forms. 
Each bush, for instance, is made up of a certain 
number of fruiting branches. The fruit is borne on 
spurs on the sides of these branches, while the woody 
growth is made by the leaders appearing at the ends 
of these branches. These leaders are annually cut 
back and the constant formation of fruit spurs is 
encouraged by pinching whatever shoots are on the 
sides of the main stems. 

It will be seen that the whole business of pruning 
falls into two general categories, viz., winter pruning 
and summer pruning. The winter or spring pruning 
is given any time after the stress of winter is over 
and before the sap starts running in the spring. This 
is the time when the ordinary fruit trees are customa- 
rily pruned. The work at this season consists chiefly 
in cutting back leaders. These are pruned off short, 
that is the whole stem is taken off down to within 
two or three buds of where it started growth the 
previous year. In some cases it is worth while to 
cut even further back, going into wood two or three 
years old. At this spring pruning the defective or 



DWARF APPLES 



71 



diseased branches are of course removed wherever 
they are found. Cases requiring such treatment al- 
ways occur even on the best trained cordons and 
espahers. Whenever it becomes necessary an entire 
branch, sometimes composing half the tree, is taken 




FIG. 27 — HORIZONTAL CORDON APPLE TREES 



out. Usually such branches can be replaced without 
great loss of time. 

Afier this winter or spring pruning comes the 
summer pruning which has been outlined above. This 
usually begins May 15-25, and continues until July 
25-31, dififering, of course, in different latitudes. 



72 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



Practically all varieties of apples can be grown as 
dwarfs, though some succeed on Paradise roots better 
than others. Some varieties also are better adapted 
for special forms, as for cordons, than are others. 
Such requirements are not very strict, and a careful 
gardener can grow practically anything he wants to. 
Patrick Barry, in his 'Fruit Garden," recommends 
"twenty very large and beautiful sorts for dwarfs," 
having in mind American conditions, and especially 
his own experience in Rochester, N. Y. His list is 
as follows: 



Red Astrachan 

Large Sweet Bough 

Primate 

Beauty of Kent 

Alexander 

Duchess -of Oldenburg 

Fall Pippin 

Williams' Favorite 

Gravcnstein 

Hawthornden 

Maiden's Blush 



Porter 

Menagere 

Red Bietigheimer 

Baile}^ Sweet 

Canada Reinette 

Northern Spy 

Mother 

King of Tompkins County 

Twenty Ounce 

Wagener 



In Europe, where greater attention has been paid 
to these matters, the opinion has settled down to a 
comparatively limited number. For example, ]\Ir. 
George Bunyard in "The Fruit Garden" recommends 
the following varieties for cordons : 



Mr. Gladstone . . . Aug. 
Devonshire Quarrenden Aug. 
James Grieve . . . Sept. 

Wealthy Oct. 

Margil Oct. 

King of Pippins . . Oct. 



Mother Oct. 

Calville Rouge Precoce . Oct. 
Cox's Orange Pippin 

Oct., Feb. 
St. Edmund's Pippin . Nov. 
Ross Nonpareil . . Nov. 



DWARF APPLES 



73 



Duchess of Oldenburg . Aug. 
Pott's Seedling . . Sept. 
Lord Grosvenor . . Sept. 
Adams' Pearmain . Dec. 
Hubbard's Pearmain . Dec. 
Allington Pippin . Nov., Feb. 
Scarlet Nonpareil . Jan., Feb. 
Norman's Pippin . . Jan. 
Lord Burghley . . . Feb. 
Duke of Devonshire . Feb. 
Rosemary Russet . . Feb. 
Sturmer Pippin . Very late 
Allen's Everlasting Very late 



Fearn's Pippin . Very late 
Lord Derby . . . Nov. 

Bismarck Dec. 

Lane's Prince Albert 

Jan., March 
Lord Sufheld . . Sept. 
Grenadier . . Sept., Oct. 
Golden Spire . Sept., Oct. 
Seaton House . Sept., Oct. 
Sandringham . . . Feb. 
Alfriston . . Feb., March 
Calville Malingre Feb to Mch. 
Calville Rouge Feb. to Mch. 



The same authority recommends the following 
varieties to be grown on Paradise stocks as bushes : 



Beauty of Bath . July, Aug. 
Red Quarrenden . July, Aug. 
Lady Sudeley . . . Sept. 
Worcester Pearmain 

Sept., Oct. 
Yellow Angestrie . . Sept. 
Duchess' Favorite 

Sept. to Oct. 
King of the Pippins . Oct. 
Early White Transparent J'ly. 
Lord Suffield . Aug., Sept. 
Pott's Seedling . Aug., Sept. 
Lord Grosvenor . Aug., Sept. 
Early Julien . Aug., Sept. 
Ecklinville Seedling 

Sept., Oct. 
Grenadier . . Sept., Oct. 
Stirling Castle . Sept., Oct. 



Golden Spire . Sept., Oct. >/ 
Cox's Orange Pippin ^ 

Nov., Febt 
Beauty of Barnack . Nov. 
Allington Pippin . Dec, Feb. 
Gascoigne's Scarlet . Dec. 
Christmas Pearmain . Dec. 
Winter Quarrenden . Dec. 
Baumann's Reinette . Jan. 
Lord Derby . Oct., Nov. 
Stone's Apple . Oct., Nov. 
Tower of Glamis . Oct., Nov. 
Warner's King . Oct., Nov. 
Bismarck . . . Oct., Nov. 
Lane's Prince Albert 

Dec, Mch. 
Bramley's Seedling Dec, Mch. 
Newton Wonder Dec, Mch. 



74 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



Max Loebener in his book on dwarf fruits recom- 
mends the following varieties for dwarf apples : 



Red Astrachan . July, Aug. 
Yellow Transparent 

Aug., Sept. 
Charlamowsky . Aug., Sept. 
Transparent de Croncels 

Sept., Oct. 
Prince Apple . Sept., Jan. 
Danzig . . . Oct., Dec. 
Dean's Codlin . Oct. to Felx 
Landbury Reinette Nov., Feb. 
Cox's Orange . Nov. to Mch. 
Requires gootJ soil 
Winter Gold Pearmain 

Nov., March 

Ribston Pippin . Nov., April 

i'lood ■i^.'drui soil 

Canada Reinette . Nov., April 

Hardy 

Inasmuch as the advantag-es of the dwarf trees 
apply especially to the growing of fine fruit, only the 
better varieties should generally be propagated in this 
way. On this basis, therefore, rather than on the 
basis of adaptation learned from experience, the fol- 
lowing varieties may be suggested among the well 
known American sorts for growing in dwarf form : 



Belle de Boskoop Nov., May 
Virginia Rose . . . Aug. 
Red Peach Summer Apple 

Aug., Sept. 
Lord Suffield . Aug., Oct. 
Cellini . . . Sept., Nov. 
Alexander . . Oct., Dec. 
Gravenstein . Oct. to Jan. 
/•"(;/- moist soils, bears late 
Yellow Richard . Nov., Dec. 
Bismarck . . . Nov., Feb. 
Yellow Bellflower 

Nov. to April 
Rcqiiirrs good position 
Baumann's Reinette 

Dec, May 



Baldwin 

Esopus 

Mother 

Williams' Favorite 

Sutton 

King 

Northern Spy 

Grimes 

Wine sap 



Yellow Transparent 

Mcintosh 

Red Astracban 

Alexander 

Wolf River 

Ribston Pippin 

Wealthy 

Wagener 



DWARF APPLES 7^ 

Of course, one propagating dwarf apples would 
always select his own favorites. It should be noticed 
that in the list given above are some varieties which 
are notable for beauty of appearance rather than 
for superior quality. They are recommended on the 
former consideration. Certain varieties in the list, 
for instance Alexander, are known to succeed es- 
pecially well as dwarfs. 



VIII 

DWARF PEARS 

Pears are the fruit most largely grown in dwarf 
form in America. There are a few well established 
and successful commercial orchards of pears, especially 
in western New York and Michigan. The pear is 




FIG. 28 — YOUNG ORCHARD OF DWARF PEARS IN WESTERN 
NEW YORK 

the fruit most assiduously cultivated in dwarf and 
trained forms in Europe. At the same time it is the 
one with which I confess I have had the least satis- 
faction. This is perhaps because I have always ex- 



DWARF PEARS 77 

perimented in a country where pears do not naturally 
succeed, and because, further, my fancies have run 
more to other kinds of fruit. 

It is probably true that the pear is improved more 




FIG. 29 — DWARF PEARS IN THE OLD AND PROFITABLE YEOMANS 
ORCHARD, NEW YORK 

in quality than any other fruit by being grown in 
dwarf form and trained as cordons and espaliers on 
a suitable frame or wall. This is emphatically true in 
cold and inclement climates, where indeed some of 



78 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

the best varieties of pears will not succeed at all 
unless given this advantage. A west wall is recom- 
mended as giving the very finest results. It should 
be noted, however, that some varieties do better on 
walls than others. Those which grow vigorously in 
bush, pyramid, or standard forms receive compara- 
tively less benefit from wall training. 

The ])ear is the best of all trees for training in 
pyramid form. Sometimes very tall slim pyramids 
are made, becoming almost pillars of foliage and fruit 
in their old age. These may be in fact upright cor- 
dons which are trained with strong stems and allowed 
to support themselves without a trellis. Some of the 
less upright growing varieties are difficult to form 
into pyramids, and such may be pruned in the ordi- 
nary bush or vase form. In growing dwarf pears 
commercially, as is sometimes done, it is probably 
best to give most varieties the bush form. The pyra- 
mid is rather harder to maintain. 

The pear succeeds well as a cordon tree. Perhaps 
the best form is the oblique cordon, one placed at 
an angle of about fort\ -five degrees with the horizon. 
The upright and horizontal cordons may also be used, 
though neither of these forms is specially well adapted 
to pears. 

All of the better types of espaliers are suited to 
pear trees. Probably the Palmette-Verrier is the 
best, although the old fashioned espaliers are often 
used. The U-form and the double U-form also suc- 
ceed if well built. 

The pruning of the pear tree is substantially the 
same as that of the apple. Where pear blight is a 



DWARF PEARS 79 

factor in the problem, due allowance must be made 
for it. It sometimes happens that entire branches or 
arms have to be cut away on account of blighting. 
The system of pruning- therefore should furnish a 




FIG. 30 — ORCHARD OF DWx\RF DUCHESS PEARS, LOCKPORT, N. Y. 

means of renewing such members promptly when 
necessity requires. 

The quince root prefers a fairly heavy and even 
moist soil. A heavy clay loam is best, although a 



So DWARF FRUIT TREES 

strong clay will answer. Light sandy soils or loose 
gravelly soils will not give such good results. On the 
other hand any clay soil which holds water to a 
considerable extent will answer. As these are the 
requirements for quince roots, they become also the 
requirements for dwarf pears. Any attempt to grow 




FIG. 31 — PYRAMID PEARS IN A GERMAN ORCHARD 

dwarf pears on a light loose soil is almost certain 
to prove a failure. 

It is often said that dwarf pears should be planted 
deep in the ground when they are set out. The rule 
is to put them deep enough so that the bud union 
will be buried beneath the surface of the soil. With 
such treatment the pear itself often throws out roots 
and eventually establishes a feeding system of its 
own, becoming independent of the quince stock. It 



DWARF PEARS 8 1 

is then no longer a dwarf tree except by the authority 
of the pruning knife. It is probably true that many 
varieties of dwarf pears are longer lived when treated 
in this way. In planting, therefore, it becomes a 
question whether one desires chiefly a long-lived tree 
or a strictly dwarf one. The ease with which dwarf 
trees are replaced makes longevity a less important 
factor than in commercial orchards of standard trees. 

Of course, it is understood that if the dwarfest 
form is to be maintained, the tree must be planted high 
enough to leave the union out of the ground, thus pre- 
venting the pear from throwing out roots of its own. 

The varieties principally grown in this country as 
dwarfs are Angouleme, Bartlett, Anjou, and Louise 
Bonne. 

In European nurseries the list of pears propagated 
on quince roots is much larger. The following varieties 
are recommended for England by Mr. Owen Thomas, 
and are said to be particularly good for training on 
walls : 

Buerre Giffard La France 

Clapp's Favorite Buerre d' Anjou 

Jargonelle Buerre de Jonghe 

Williams' (Bartlett) Doyenne dAlengon 

Buerre dAmanlis Glou Morceau 

Fondante d'Automne Marie Benoist 

Triomphe de Vienne Winter Nelis 

Buerre Bosc Buerre Diel 

Buerre Hardy Nouvelle Fulvie 

Buerre Brown Buerre Sterckmans 

Comte de Lamy Easter Buerre 

Louise Bonne de Jersey Le Lectier 

Pitmaston Duchess Olivier de Serres 



S2 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



Seckel 

Conference 

Doyenne du Cornice 

Marie Louise 

Thompson's 

Duchesse d'Angouleme 



Passe Crassane 
Ne Plus Meuris 
Bergamotte Esperen 
Buerre Ranee 
Josephine de Malines 



IX 
DWARF PEACHES 

The peach as a dwarf tree is almost unknown in 
America. It is not very often grown as a dwarf 
even in Europe, except when it is trained on walls or 
grown in houses. The species, however, is easily 
dwarfed and makes a good tree in various forms when 
well propagated. The methods by which dwarf 
peaches are propagated are fully described in the 
chapter devoted to that subject. 

Peach trees growing on plum stocks and formed 
in vases or bushes make excellent garden trees. Nat- 
urally they should be headed low, best within three 
to six inches of the ground. They then make fine, 
regular, well balanced tops which are easily kept 
opened out in the desired vase form. Such trees 
usually come into bearing one or two years earlier 
than those propagated and trained in the usual way. 
In a country like New England where peach growing 
is largely a system of gambling against cold weather, 
and where the business largely resolves itself into a 
race for getting a crop before the trees freeze back, 
the smaller stature and the earlier bearing of the 
dwarf tree are obvious advantages. It has not yet 
been shown that this may be turned to account on 
a commercial scale, but there seem to be possibilities 
in it. In case the peach grower undertakes the method 
of laying down his peach trees and covering them 

83 



84 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



during the winter to save them from freezing, the 
smaller growth of the dwarf trees would prove a 
decided advantage. This method of handling peach 
trees has proved a practical success under certain 
conditions. 

The peach does not succeed as a cordon. The 




FIG. 32 — DWAkF PEACH IN NURSERY 
Headed back and formed into bushes 



nearest that this form can be successfully approached 
is the U-form. The double U-form is probably even 
better, The fan form of training is the best of all 
methods of training for the peach. The tree makes 
wood so rapidly that considerable space has to be 



DWARF PEACHES 



85 



provided for the annual growth. The fan form being 
less definite in its makeup can be more readily adapted 
to the exigencies of rapid growth and severe cutting 
out. 
On account of its more vigorous growth the peach 




FIG. SS — ESPALIER PEACH, HARTFORD, CONN, 



demands even more drastic pruning than that already 
described for apples and pears. The method of manag- 
ing a peach tree, however, differs in some details. 
There is not such a distinct establishment of leaders 
at the end of the shoot ; and since the peach never 
forms fruit spurs like those of the apple, the pruning 
of the fruit-bearinsr wood is necessarilv different. The 



86 DWARF FRIIT TREES 

best fruit buds are formed on the strong clean shoots 
of the current season's growth. These must be allowed 
to grow far enough and vigorously enough to ripen 
good fruit buds. If they make too much growth, 
however, the side buds start secondary branches and 
the fruiting prospects are reduced. The management 
of the tree must be such as to keep this growth of 
new wood in just the proper balance. 

In order to carry out the idea thus outlined, an 
early spring pruning is given while the trees are 
dormant, and several successive prunings are ad- 
ministered during the growing season. At the spring 
pruning a considerable amount of wood is cut out 
from all portions of the tree, the amount thus removed 
being much greater than that from the pear or apple 
trees at the same season. The old decrepit and 
diseased branches are taken first for removal, and then 
one year old wood is cut back where necessary, so 
as to leave two or three buds at the base of each 
branch. 

The first summer pruning is given about May 15th 
to 20th, after the growth has well begun. A vigorous 
tree will start more shoots than there is room for, 
and these are thinned out until all have sufficient 
space. A few of the most vigorous ones are pinched 
back at this time. One week to ten days later the 
trees sre gone over again, at which time the principal 
pinching back is done. The shoots which are making 
too much growth, especially on the interior of the tree 
or on the main arms, are stopped. A third pruning 
is given about June first, and consists chiefly in re- 
moving w^eak shoots or those which are crowding one 



DWARF PEACHES 



87 



another, and cutting back those which are growing 
too far. 

The peach usually requires a comparatively light 
soil and a warm exposure. The plum root upon which 
a dwarf peach is budded will usually succeed in a 




FIG. 34 — PEACH IN FAN ESPALIER ON WALL, ENGLAND 



considerably heavier soil, and the method of budding 
on plnm is therefore sometimes practised with the 
specific object of adapting the peach tree to heavier 
soils. Inasmuch as various kinds of plums succeed 
in all soils on which any crop can be grown, from 
light sand to heavy clay, .it is not difficult to meet 
any reasonable requirements in this respect. 



88 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



All varieties of peaches and nectarines seem to 
succeed equally well as dwarfs. Those varieties which 
are grown as dwarfs in Europe are naturally the ones 
which are favorites there. In this country the favorite 
varieties are almost altogether different and we would 




FIG. 35 — PEACH TREES TRAINED UNDER GLASS 



expect to choose such sorts as Late Crawford, Foster, 
Old Mixon, Belle of Georgia, Champion, Waddell, 
and other choice American varieties for our use. 

The nectarine is in large favor in Europe and is 
much more extensively grown than in America. The 
merits of this fruit seem to have been strangely over- 
looked in this country. When nectarines are properly 



DWARF PEACHES 



grown under glass, they are one of the most deHcious 
and beautiful fruits known in this world of limitations 
and disappointments. The nectarine is a fruit which 
will in general bear more extensive cultivation in 
America and which is to be especially recommended 
for dwarf fruit gardens. This is not to say that it 
should supersede the peach, or even that it should 
take equal prominence, but simply that it should be 
well represented in every selection of fruits for an 
amateur's collection. 



X 
DWARF PLUMS 

Most amateur and professional fruit growers are 
less interested in plums than in other tree fruits. Per- 
haps I am prejudiced, but I feel that this is not fair 
to the plum. Plums yield some profit when rightly 
cultivated commercially, and no end of satisfaction 
when cultivated for the gardener's own entertainment. 
The large assortment of varieties which one may 
secure is in itself a claim to interest, and a source 
of much delight to the collector. The fact that 
different types of plums furnish fruit of very di- 
verse characters makes the collection more valuable 
from every standpoint. So far as the writer knows 
dwarf plums have seldom been grown to any extent 
in America. They certainly have no present claim 
based on experience for recognition in commercial 
orchards. Nevertheless they have possibilities CA^en 
for the growing of market fruit, and for cultivation in 
the garden, dwarf trees are altogether worth while. 

In the chapter on propagation, reference has been 
made to the stocks used for plums and that subject 
need not be discussed here. 

When plum trees have been secured budded on 
suitable dwarfing stocks, as, for example, Americana 
or sand cherry, they may be trained in a variety of 
ways. Probably the ordinary bush form is the best. 
Most varieties of plums do not form either a satis- 




FIG. 36 — PLUM TREES TRAINED AS UPRIGHT CORDONS 



92 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

factory pyramid or a strictly vase form. Some of the 
better growing Japanese varieties of plums approach 
the latter form fairly well. Red June, Satsuma, and 
Chabot may be mentioned as particular examples. 
With such varieties a true vase form can be main- 
tained as well as with peaches. In dealing with a 
majority of varieties, however, a simple bush-like head 
without a mathematically constructed frame work is 
about the best that can be secured. In most cases the 
head should be formed low, preferably not more than 
six inches from the ground. Still considerable lati- 
tude has to be allowed the gardener's fancy in deal- 
mg with dwarf trees, and the writer can easily imag- 
ine a garden design which would require trees to be 
high headed. It would be practicable and excusable 
m some cases to form heads four, five, or even six 
feet from the ground. This is often done in England 
and Germany with all sorts of fruit trees, this form 
being referred to as a "standard." 

A head can be secured at almost any point on a 
plum tree of good growth, by heading back at the 
desired height. Four to six branches should be allowed 
to grow the first year and in course of time these will 
be increased to eight, twelve, or even more. That is, 
there will be this number of what we might call main 
branches because they are all of approximately equal 
importance. 

At the end of the first year after the tree has been 
headed back the main branches, which have now 
formed, are to be cut back in turn. With all strong- 
growing varieties it is best to remove from one half 
to two-thirds of the annual growth from these main 



DWARF PLUMS 



93 



branches, if the tree is to be restricted to a com- 
paratively narrow spread. A considerable number of 
strong shoots will put forth the next year. These 
should be thinned out as soon as they start to a number 
approximately twice that of the main arms. These 
new branches should be distributed as symmetrically 
as possible. The tree top is now formed and sub- 
sequent pruning consists essentially of a severe head- 
ing in during the latter part of the dormant season, 
that is, about March, followed by two, three, or four 
summer prunings somewhat after the manner described 
for the peach. At the time of these summer prunings 
the young growing shoots should be thinned out 
enough to prevent any choking of the tree top and 
should be headed in wherever it is necessary to re- 
tain the symmetrical growth. 

The manner of forming the fruit buds or spurs is 
so diverse in the different kinds of plums that no 
general rule can be given for encouraging them. Close 
observation of each variety will soon enable the gar- 
dener to direct his pruning in such a way as to assist 
in this important process of fruit bud formation. In 
a rough general way it may be said that the Donies- 
tica and /\mericana varieties of plums form distinct 
fruit spurs along the sides of one and two year old 
branches, and that, for the encouragement of these, 
considerable light should be admitted and the growth 
of the interior shoots rather rigidly checked. The 
Japanese and Hortulana varieties on the other hand 
fruit best from very short spurs or clusters of buds 
which form along from the strong one and two year 



94 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

old branches. The main object, therefore, with these 
latter varieties is to maintain a succession of clean, 
sound, well matured shoots. This is done by a mod- 
erate thinning of the main shoots early in the year, 
resulting in the forcing of those which are left. These 
strong growing shoots are checked late in the summer 
in order that they may ripen up thoroughly, but the 
pinching which is done to this end is delayed long 
enough so that the pinched shoots will not start into 
growth again. Aloreover, this pinching is done well 
out to the ends of the shoots. 

Certain varieties of plums succeed fairly well as 
vertical cordons. The varieties least adapted to this 
purpose are the Hortulana offspring and their h\brids 
and a few of the rank-growing Japanese, like Hale and 
October Purple. In the dwarf tree garden at the 
Massachusetts Agricultural College the writer has a 
row of plum trees containing a large assortment of 
varieties and species. These trees were picked out 
at random from various sources and very few of them 
were propagated on dwarfing stocks. On this ac- 
count the trees were set two feet apart, which is more 
than is usually recommended for upright cordons. 
They have now been growing three years, and they 
furnish much interesting testimony regarding the 
feasibility of growing plums in this form. Contrary 
to expectation such varieties as Red June, Abundance, 
and Burbank have done well under this treatment. 
These varieties all fruited the next year after planting. 
Some varieties of the Domestica group are bearing 
the third year after planting, which is unusuall\- early. 




FIG. T,7- 



-BURBANK PLUMS ON UPRIGHT CORDONS TRAINED TO 
TRELLIS 



gb DWARF FRL'IT TREKS 

All of them seem to be fairly well adapted to this 
method of treatment. Varieties like Wildgoose and 
Wayland, and such hybrids as Gonzales, Waugh and 
Red ]\lay, can hardly be controlled in the restricted 
space allowed them in a row of vertical cordons. 
They give very little promise of success. It is prob- 
able that all these varieties would make a better 
showing if they were propagated on some such stock 
as sand cherry. 

Plums are seldom — almost never — propagated as 
horizontal cordons. I have never yet undertaken it 
myself, but propose to do so at the first opportunity 
and with some expectation of moderate success with 
certain varieties. The slow growing sorts like Green 
Gage, Italian Prune, and Agen seem to offer special 
promise. 

In the form of espaliers plums are often trained 
against walls. Indeed this is the favorite way of 
producing fancy plums in England, and the same 
practise prevails to a considerable extent on the con- 
tinent of Europe. In this country walls are not re- 
quired, and in most cases would be of no advantage. 
Where it is desired to cover back fences or sides of 
buildings, however, plum trees in espalier form can 
be confidently recommended. The Domestica varie- 
ties of highest quality such as Bavay, Jefferson, Vic- 
toria, Pond, Bradshaw, and Coe's Golden Drop would 
have first choice. The Japanese varieties can also 
be grown on trellises or walls, but the freer forms, 
such as the fan espalier used for the peach, are better 
suited to their habits of growth. 



DWARF PLUMS QfJ 

The following varieties of plums can be recom- 
mended for dwarf bush forms : 

Green Gage Bava}^ (Reine Claude) 

Jefferson McLaughlin 

Bradshaw Pond 

Agen Bleeker 

Grand Duke Italian Prune 

Cluster Damson (or other Damsons) 

Such varieties of the Japanese class as Abundance, 
Chabot, Red June, Satsuma, Burbank may be grown 
on dwarf stocks in bush forms, but thev are not al- 
together satisfactory. There are two objections 
against them : ( i ) It is difficult to keep them in re- 
stricted bounds, such a result being dependent on con- 
stant and severe heading in. (2) They overgrow the 
dwarf stocks very strongly and thus do not have a 
very firm hold on the ground. They are apt to blow 
over or break off after a few years, unless carefully 
staked up. 

The following varieties can be recommended for 
upright cordons, in which form they will give moderate 
success if properly managed:. 

Coe's Golden Drop Bradshaw 

Agen Bavay 

Victoria Lombard 

Grand Duke Chabot 

Abundance Cheney 

Burbank Aubert (Yellow Egg or Mag- 
num Bonum) 

Also most of the clean-growing Americana varieties 
such as Smith, Terry, Stoddard, etc. 



9« 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



Mr. Owen Thomas recommends for growing on 
walls in England the following varieties : 



Green Gage 
Brandy Gage 
Denniston's Superb Gage 
Comte d'Athem's Gage 
Transparent Gage 
Transparent Late Gage 
Jefferson 
Reine Claude Violette 



Brahy's Green Gage 
Bryanstone Gage 
Oullin's Golden Gage 
Golden Transparent Gage 
Reine Claude de Bavay 
Coe's Golden Drop 
Kirke's Blue 
Washington 



XI 
BUSH FRUITS 



The bush fruits, so far as I know, are never culti- 
vated as dwarfs. To speak more exactly I should 
say that no dwarf stock is ever used to reduce the 
size to which the plants grow. On the other hand, bush 
fruits are often systematically pruned back in order 
to restrict their size, and are sometimes trained in 
elaborate forms as dwarf fruit trees are. To this 
extent they are managed in the same way and might 
properly be treated in the same general category. 
What is more to our purpose, they are almost always 
included in the plan of any private fruit garden on 
a restricted area, such as we have had chiefly in view 
in this discussion of dwarf fruit trees. These reasons 
make it appropriate, if not indeed essential, that 
something should be said regarding these fruits here. 

All bush fruits can be grown in such forms as cor- 
dons, espaliers, etc. Anything of this sort which the 
gardener wishes can become a part of his garden of 
little trees. Gooseberries and currants offer the most 
entertainment and renumeration when subjected to 
special pruning and training, and indeed they should 
not be omitted from any garden scheme of this kind. 
Raspberries are less amenable to this kind of educa- 
tion and should be introduced with some care. Black- 
berries are necessarily difficult to handle and no 
very complicated schemes of pruning and training 

LOFC. ^ 



BUSH FRUITS lOI 

can be successfully applied to them. Such other fruits 
as Loganberries, strawberry-raspberries, June berries, 
etc., may be introduced "at the owner's risk." Any 
of them will submit to a certain amount of correction 
with the pruning knife, and may add to the variety 
of fruits grown in the amateur's garden. Of course, 
it is distinctly understood that these special methods 
of treatment are not commercially recommended for 
any of the bush fruits in America. 

Probably the most interesting and practical way 
for handling gooseberries and currants in dwarf fruit 
gardens is the form known as standards. This form 
consists of a small round fruiting top of almost any 
desired variety grafted high upon a straight clean 
trunk or stem. This stem may have any convenient 
height from two to ten feet, the most common and 
practical height being about four feet. The stock 
used is the flowering currant, Ribcs aitreuni, which 
forms a sufficiently strong and upright growth for 
this purpose. Nevertheless it is almost always neces- 
sary to support these standards with a convenient stake 
apiece. For the present these standard gooseberries 
and currants can be obtained only of the European 
nurserymen. At least the writer knows of no one 
who propagates them in America. There are several 
importers, however, who make a business of supply- 
ing European stock and who are always glad to im- 
port these on order. 

The finer varieties are especially chosen for grow- 
ing as standards. This applies particularly to goose- 
berries, which are more widely grown and which are 
more highly prized in Europe than in this country. 



BUSH FRUITS 



103 



The varieties grown in Europe are usually finer table 
fruits than the American varieties. It is generally un- 
derstood that the finest fruits for eating fresh out of 
hand are secured from the standard gooseberries. 

Gooseberries and currants are also adapted easily 
to the espalier form. The most elaborate palmettes 
and other geometrical designs can be worked out. 
Nevertheless the simplest and most practical form for 
trained gooseberries and currants is the fan shape. If 
a suitable trellis is provided, the vines may be easily 
tied out upon it in very attractive fan forms and these 
are found to be quite satisfactory, both as regards 
their looks and their product of fruit. They are also 
easily sprayed, which is a consideration worth mention- 
ing when one has to fight the currant worm. In gen- 
eral, it is best in our latitude to run these espaliers 
north and south, because they receive too much sun 
when the trellis runs east and west. This rule, how- 
ever, is not absolute. 

Probably the most convenient and practical way for 
growing these fruits in the dwarf tree garden is to 
plant standards at regular intervals in a row, say 
six feet apart, and to plant a certain number of fan 
shaped bushes between each pair of standards in the 
row. If these standards were six feet apart, two 
plants for fan training would be enough between each 
pair. The top of the trellis on which the fan forms 
are tied, would not be above four feet high, better 
only three. The heads of the standards then rise well 
above the top of the trellis. This furnishes some sup- 
port for the stem of the standard and economizes 



I04 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



Space. Economy of space is one of the first principles 
of this style of gardening. 

No list need be given here of the varieties of goose- 
berries and currants to be recommended for this class 



PI 


P' 







FIG. 40 — TREE FORM GOOSEBERRY 



of planting. It may 1)e said that any of the favorite 
varieties of currants grown in this country, as for 
example, Fay, \'ictoria. Red Versailles, etc., may be 
chosen, and that these are indeed the varieties usually 
preferred in Europe. With respect to gooseberries it 



BUSH FRUITS 



105 



may be remarked that the EngHsh, French, and Ger- 
man varieties are mostly very different from those 
grown in America, and that while they have some 
shortcomings in our climate, they are for the most 
part to be recommended for the purposes which we 
here have in view. 



XII 
FRUIT TREES IN POTS 

Those who are used to seeing large fruit trees in 
orchard plantations where each specimen has i,ooo 
to 2,000 square feet of space, with unlimited op- 
portunities downward, find a fruit tree in a pot a 
curiosity. It seems remarkable to see a tree in vigor- 
ous health and bearing fruit with less than one 
cubic foot of soil. Nevertheless this method of hand- 
ling fruit trees is entirely practicable. In some places 
it is practised extensively in an amateur way, and oc- 
casionally reaches almost commercial proportions. P^or 
those who grow fruit trees for recreation there could 
hardly be a more interesting experiment. 

The pots mostly used are the nine, ten, eleven and 
twelve inch standard earthenware pots. With most 
trees it is best to begin with small sizes and gradually 
shift forward to the larger ones. A bearing tree 
may be maintained for several years in a twelve inch 
pot or even in a ten inch size. Sometimes wooden 
tubs are substituted for pots. These look better, but 
are not so good in any other way. 

Trees may be grown in pots out of doors, although 
there is no particular advantage in doing this. If such 
practise is undertaken the pots should be plunged 
their full depth in good garden soil. Perfect drainage 
should be secured by having some broken brick or 
coarse cinders underneath. 
106 



FRUIT TREES IN POTS lO/ 

Usually potted trees are grown under glass. They 
are kept in a cool greenhouse, that is one with little 
heat. Sometimes they are without artificial heat. 
In fact this is probably the best way. The houses 
which are purposely constructed for fruit trees may 
have a single line of pipe if this is convenient, so that 
the chill may be taken off the air in severe cold 
weather. To reach anything like real success, houses 
must be devoted exclusively to fruit trees. Occa- 
sionally trees may be grown with other plants, as in 
cold graperies, but the results are not the best and 
often come very close to failure. 

In building houses for fruit trees exclusively, the 
even span construction is nearly always used. Houses 
eighteen or twenty feet wide, and five feet high at 
the eaves, will answer the purpose very well. The 
leading greenhouse designers are prepared to furnish 
plans for such houses and it is usually best to follow 
the advice of their experts. 

All kinds of fruit trees can be grown in pots. This 
includes apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, and 
cherries. Those which give the best returns are 
plums and nectarines. Apples in pots are very inter- 
esting and furnish a superior quality of fruit when 
grown under glass. Apples, plums and nectarines 
take a finer finish and a higher flavor when grown 
in this way than when grown in any other. 

All fruit trees to be grown in pots should be prop- 
agated on the dwarfest of dwarfing stocks. This 
means practically that apples should be on Paradise, 
pears on quince, peaches and nectarines on sand cherry, 



io8 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



plum on sand cherry or St. Jnlien plum, and cherries 
on Mahaleh. 

The trees should be potted in good rich soil, pref- 



f 


. ^^ 


A 

/ 


1 1 


1 



FIG. 41 — A FRUITING PEACH IN POT 

erably the best garden loam. This should have 
enough sand and gravel in it to insure good drainage. 
A considerable amount of drainage material should 



FRUIT TREES IN TOTS IO9 

be placed in the bottom of each pot. The trees shouhl 
be repotted in fresh soil annually in October or No- 
vember. 

Trees in pots require liberal feeding. Besides being 
given well enriched earth at the time of repotting, they 
should be supplied from time to time with small 
amounts of fertilizer. Good soluble chemical fertili- 
zers can be applied either dry or dissolved. A good 
formula is one part nitrate of soda, two parts of 
muriate of potash, two parts of high grade phosphoric 
acid. A very little sprinkling, say a tablespoon ful, 
of this can be given on each pot once a month during 
the growing season which lasts roughly from Decem- 
ber to May. In place of this, or alternately with this, 
moderate waterings with liquid manure may also be 
given. These small doses of food are especially use- 
ful at the time when the fruit is forming on the trees. 

The trees are usually brought into the house at 
the time of potting, say November i. If early fruit 
is desired, they are kept in a house with some heat. 
It is necessary only that the temperature should be 
kept constantly and safely above the freezing point. 
Rapid forcing with a high temperature is not desirable 
and is hardly possible. If kept simply above the 
freezing point, these trees will start into growth in 
January. They can then be kept somewhat warmer 
during February, the heat being slightly increased in 
March. Peaches and nectarines will stand fairly 
high temperatures after the fruit is well set and espe- 
cially toward ripening time. By this method of mild 
forcing, plums, peaches, and nectarines can be brought 
into fruit as early as the latter part of May. 



no 



DWARF FRUIT TREES 



The main crop of potted fruits, however, need not 
be expected until June or July ; that is not very much 
in advance of the outdoor crop. The object of grow- 
ing fruit under glass is not so much to force it ahead 







~ ^^ B i ^ w 1 ^ 



FIG. 42 — A FIG TREE IN A POT 



of season as it is to improve the quality. Trees which 
are to be kept in a cool house without heat need no 
particular attention except to see that they are watered 
occasionally and that some plant food is given after 
growth begins. Even if the temperature goes down 
considerably below freezing during the winter months 



FRUIT TREES IN POTS HI 

in this cold house where the potted fruit trees are, no 
damage need be expected. 

Of course, special care will be given to prevent 
damage from attacks of fungi or insects which occa- 
sionally become troublesome in the houses. The small 
size of these trees makes such work comparatively 
easy. 

The methods of pruning are the same as those rec- 
ommended for pyramid and bush form trees, These 
forms are the most practical for pot culture^ though 
pot trees are occasionally trained in cordon forms. 



XIII 
PERSONALIA 

Many persons have a strong prejudice in favor of 
the concrete. On general principles they object to 
generalities. They choose rather the specific case. 
Personal experience, they say, means more to them 
than theory, even though the theory be the sublimation 
of all experience. For the benefit of such people I 
am going to set down an account of some of my own 
attempts at growing dwarf fruit trees, and to that I 
will add brief opinions and experiences of some friends 
of mine. 

The first dwarf fruit tree that I ever saw, so far as 
I remember, was in the grounds of the Kansas State 
Agricultural College when I was a student there. This 
tree was an apple, on Paradise stock, and at two years 
after planting it bore six or eight very fine Yellow 
Transparent apples. It was one of several dwarf 
apples planted by Professor E. A. Popenoe, but the 
other trees did not much attract my attention. This 
particular specimen had a straight, clean trunk of about 
thirty inches, after the absurd style of heading dwarf 
apples practised in most American nurseries. But 
the crown was full and symmetrical, and the fruit was 
incomparable. That particular tree has alwa}^s been 
a sort of ideal and inspiration to me. 

Later, when I planted an orchard in Oklahoma, I 
put in some dwarf trees, particularly pears, but I did 



PERSONALIA 113 

not Stay there long enough to see what came of them. 

The next fruit garden in which I became interested 
was in Vermont. This had in it some dwarf pear 
trees, dwarf apples and dwarf plums, and my own 
personal experience had fairly begun. - The dwarf ap- 
ples proved to be an almost complete failure, for rea- 
sons which I can not now satisfactorily explain. A 
few years later I planted a few dwarf apple trees in 
another Vermont garden, where they did reasonably 
well. But, at any rate, the whole undertaking was un- 
satisfactory, for it did not give me a vital understand- 
ing of the trees. I never got onto terms of real 
personal goodfellowship with them ; and until a gard- 
ener does that his work is some sort of a failure. 

The dwarf pears did somewhat better. They seemed 
to understand their business, and they kept about it 
without much attention from me. I never cared much 
for pears, anyway. 

But the plums were the brilliant success, at least 
with reference to my own interior personal experience. 
Every plum tree meant something to me. A stub of 
a root and two scrawny plum branches would at any 
time arouse my imagination like the circus posters' 
appeal to a boy. In this Vermont garden which I 
adopted when it was about four years old, there were 
various plum trees, mostly of domestica varieties, 
growing on Americana roots. They had come from the 
Iowa State College, where they had been educated that 
way. They had been given those Americana roots, not 
primarily to dwarf them, but to insure them against 
damage from the cold winters. The tops had not been 
cut back, and the whole treatment was just such as 



114 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

would have been applied to standards. Later I saw 
the bad results of this treatment, for several of the trees 
blew over in high winds. From subsequent experience 
I feel sure that if they had been headed low at first, 
if they had been kept closely headed back and other- 
wise handled like real dwarfs, they would have lived 
to a greater age and would have made everybody hap- 
pier. 

At this time also I began, on a somewhat compre- 
hensive plan, the propagation of plums on all sorts 
of stocks, including Americana, Wayland seedlings. 
Miner root cuttings and sand cherry, all more or 
less efficient dwarfing stocks. By this time I was into 
it head over ears, as far as the plums were concerned. 

This having been the largest chapter in my per- 
sonal pomological experience, I suppose it ought to 
form the largest portion of this chapter in the book; 
but my plum work and my experiments in propagation 
have been so often and so fully reported elsewhere 
that it would be a vain repetition* to go over them 
again now. They are all written down in the proper 
places where they may be consulted by the enthusiastic 
or ill-advised student. 

And then I came to Massachusetts ; and here the 
first project, almost, to which my hand was turned 
was the installation of a garden of dwarf fruit trees. 
From the following memorandum of the trees growing 
in this garden any reader may surmise the enjoyment 
I have found in it. There is one row of dwarf plum 
trees set six feet apart and trained, rather unsatisfac- 
torily, into bush form. The trees were many of them too 
large when they came from France, and, though I cut 



PERSONALIA II5 

them back severely, they did not form such low bushy 
heads as my ideal species. They are on St. Julien 
roots, which serve the purposes in hand fairly well. 
Though the trees had a hard trip across the water only 
one out of forty-six has died in three years. Unfortu- 
nately these trees have not yet borne fruit, — not one 
of them. Next year many of them will bear. Earlier 
fruitage can certainly be secured on sand cherry stocks 
and under other methods of training. 

Besides the bush plums, the garden contains a row 
of upright cordons. Most of these were not propa- 
gated on dwarf stocks at all, and were not expected 
to suffer any such drastic training as I have ])ut upon 
them. They were taken from the college nursery and 
from the nurseries of several of my correspondents, 
just wherever I could find the varieties I wanted, and 
without reference to the stocks on which they were 
growing. A few are on Americana stocks, several are 
on peach roots (of all things), and probably a major- 
ity are growing on the usual Myrobalan roots. These 
trees are planted two feet apart in the row and are 
tied up to a trellis of chicken wire. There are about 
thirty varieties in the row, numbering most of the 
different botanical types more frequently cultivated in 
North America. Many of the varieties are totally and 
very obviously unsuited to this method of treatment, 
and presently I will replace them with more amenable 
varieties. But many of the varieties have fruited, espe- 
cially the Japanese kinds, and some of them, like Bur- 
bank, have proved most unexpectedly docile. Alto- 
gether this row of unsuitably propagated and unsuit- 
ably selected varieties of plum trees has been one of 



Il6 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

the most interesting, instructive and entertaining ele- 
ments in my dwarf fruit garden. 

Next there comes a trelhs bearing some espahers, 
including plums, pears, apples, peaches and cherries; 
but these have been recently planted, and as yet they 
have done nothing worth relating. 

There is one row of twenty-three dwarf pears, 
mostly trained in pyramid form. These have not done 
well, but the reason is not far to seek. The soil is 
light and full of gravel, and quite unsuited to pear 
or quince. Pears never thrive on it. Several of the 
trees are bearing a crop this year, but some of the 
trees are also dead, and the whole row looks like the 
finish of a bargain sale on the remnant ribbon counter. 

The row of upright cordon pears is a trifle better, 
but that is only an accident, I think. The varieties 
which are growing there seem to be rather better 
adapted to withstand the unpropitious surroundings. 
These trees also are bearing. 

When we come to the two rows of horizontal cor- 
don apples, though, the real fun has begun. Nearly 
all these trees are in bearing, and a few of them have 
borne every year since they were planted out. They 
are set only three feet apart in the row, which is not 
enough ; and they suffered terribly the first year from 
a midsummer attack of aphides ; and the pruning was 
neglected to allow them to recover from that scourge, 
so that the form was somewhat injured; but they have 
never ceased to be a joy to me and a wonderment to 
visitors. They are mostly of European varieties, but 
Bismarck is the showiest and most fruitful one in the 
collection, though far from the best to eat. 



PERSONA]. I A 



117 



Then there are standard gooseberries and currants, 
of which there is Httle to be said. Thev haven't been 
there long, but they are at home and are going to stav. 




FIG. 43 — DWARF PEAR IN PYRAMID FORM 
Two years planted ; author's garden 

Next year I am going to put in some gooseberries and 
currants in espaher form. 

Very few persons know what a medlar is. For the 
benefit of the ignorant and to increase the kaleido- 



Il8 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

scopic effect on my fruit garden, I liave some medlar 
trees, — Hollandische Monstrose, — which I bought of 
Louis Spath, Baumschulenweg, lierhn. 

A wire trelhs, built much like a grape trellis, only 
higher, carries the row of upright cordon apples. 
Some of these bore fruit the first year they were 
planted, and there has been a fair sprinkling of fruit 
every year since then. This has been one of the most 
satisfactory lots in the make-up. 

There are two rows containing forty-six bush- form 
apples on paradise roots set six feet apart. Some of 
these have borne every year since planting out, many 
of them showing a good crop this year. Again Bis- 
marck is the most fruitful, but the least pleasing to 
eat. Alexander has made a good record, and this 
year Calville d'Automne shows a ver}- pretty crop. It 
is customary with visitors, especially those already in- 
terested in fruit-growing and those of a practical turn 
of mind, to depart with the judgment that "all those 
other schemes are curious and interesting, but the 
bush form apple trees look the most like business." 
I think so too. In fact my experience with dwarf ap- 
ples might be summarized by saying, ''bush trees for 
business, cordons for fun." 

One row of peach trees on St. Julicn plum roots set 
fruit buds in abundance the first year, but they were 
killed by the freeze of the following winter. The sec- 
ond year the experience was the same, except that the 
tops froze with the fruit buds. New tops were grown 
at once, however, and the following year nearly every 
tree bore a small crop of fruit. Dwarf peach trees 
are worth while. 



PERSONALIA II9 

This garden has also a row of cherry trees, inckicl- 
ing Morello, Richmond and Montmorency ; but these 
trees were set the second year of the garden making 
and have borne only a small crop of sample cherries. 

The last planting in this garden consists of one row 
of nectarines, twenty-two trees. 

This little garden, containing considerably less than 
a quarter of an acre of land, has now growing upon 
it 548 fruit trees of the kinds named. And I am not 
yet done planting. There are various other things that 
I want to put in, — quinces, apricots, and perhaps rasp- 
berries, dewberries, and other bush fruits. In fact, 
I should like to make it a "Paradise" like good old 
Gerarde's or Dodoens', in which all the fruits "good 
for food or physic" might be brought together and 
represented in a little space. 

It would be quite wrong to close this experience 
meeting without giving the observations and quoting 
the opinions of some other and better men. Patrick 
Barry, in his delightful "Fruit Garden," recorded his 
belief that dwarf fruit trees were well worth while. 
"The apple," said he, "worked on the Paradise, makes 
a beautiful little dwarf bush. We know of nothing 
more interesting in the fruit garden than a row or 
little square of these miniature fruit trees. They begin 
to bear the third year from the bud, and the same va- 
riety is always larger and finer on them than on stand- 
ards." Speaking of pears, he said : "On the quince 
stock the trees bear much earlier, are more prolific, 
more manageable, and consequently preferable for 
small gardens." 

The late Mr. E. G. Lodeman, who wrote the most 



I20 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

comprehensive American monograph on dwarf apples, 
conchided his essay rather pessimistically in these 
words: "From all the evidence which I have been 
able to collect, therefore, I cannot advise the planting 
of dwarf apple trees for commercial rewards, but it 
seems to me, nevertheless, that the}- are worth exper- 
imenting with for this purpose." Mr. Lodeman re- 
corded and endorsed the common opinion "that apples 
grown on dwarf trees are handsomer and of better 
quality than those grown upon standards" ; but he 
did not seem to consider that fact of much importance. 

Those who are acquainted at the Lazy Club in Cor- 
nell University, and especially those who know Baili- 
wick, have heard of Professor L. H. Bailey's dwarf 
apples. (Fig. 44.) These were planted six or eight 
years ago, and most of them are now in bearing. There 
are a good many different varieties, nearly all French. 
]\Iy understanding of the scheme is that it was as 
nuich as half intended to be a commercial venture; 
but up to the i)rcsent time little else but confusion and 
fun have been gathered with the fruit from those dwarf 
apple trees. When last I asked the proprietor for 
his experience with dwarf apples he said that he was 
having a lot of experience, only he didn't know what 
it was. 

Dwarf pears have been planted frequently, especially 
in Western New York and Michigan. I asked Pro- 
fessor S. A. Beach for his observations of them, to 
which he replied: "With regard to dwarf pears I will 
sav that the variety which is most generally grown in 
commercial orchards is Bartlett. Almost without ex- 
ception this is grown as a standard. Other important 



122 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

commercial varieties are Seckel, Bosc and Winter 
Nelis. All these are generally grown as standards. 
The variety commonly grown as dwarf is Angouleme. 
A few fruit growers of my acquaintance are making 
some money from orchards of dwarf Angouleme. The 
other varieties which are often propagated on dwarf 
stock as Clairgeau, Anjou and so forth, are seldom 
profitable. In fact I have heard it stated that outside 
of EUwanger and Barry's orchard there is not a profit- 
able orchard of Anjou in this State. From these state- 
ments I wish you to derive the conclusion that in New- 
York State under present conditions there is little en- 
couragement for planting dwarf pears commercially.'* 

Mr. E. W. Wood, for many years chairman of the 
fruit committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural 
Societv, says that "under the right conditions the dwarf 
pear tree is a necessity for commercial pear growing. 
The growers in Revere and Cambridge would feel 
they could not get along without the dwarf trees. 
Putting the pear on the quince stock does not change 
the wants of the roots of the latter, and it is no use 
setting them on a light, dry soil, as the roots being 
confined to a small area of unsuitable soil, will make 
a feeble growth and finally die outright ; or, if in an 
exposed situation, blow over. JMost all the varieties 
may be grown as dwarfs. The Angouleme and Clair- 
geau, both good market varieties, cannot be success- 
fully grown in any other way." 

Recently ]\Ir. M. B. Waite has written me the let- 
ter quoted below, giving some conclusions from his 
experience with dwarf pears in Anne Arundel County, 
Alarvland. He says: 



PERSONALIA 1 23 

"I planted out i,ooo dwarf pear trees nine years 
ago. They were largely Duchess (Angouleme), but 
there are some Manning, Howell, Anjou, Louise 
Bonne and Lawrence. I have not been entirely satis- 
fied with the results. We have not had the proper 
quantity of fruit. There has been some fruit every 
year since the fourth year, and two years ago there 
was quite a good crop, but nothing to compare with 
the yield per acre of Kieffer, LeConte and Garber, for 
instance. Of course, these are higher-priced fruit and 
large yields are not required for good returns. Only 
the Duchess and Manning, however, have produced 
sufficient to pay at all, and the orchard has not as 
yet really paid financially. We have a nice crop this 
year, however, more than the total yield up to this 
season, and perhaps from now on we may win out. 
My dwarf pears are on a soil too dry and sandy for 
the best results, and I think we are at Washington 
pretty near the southern limit, at least at low altitudes. 
In the mountains of ATrginia and North Carolina they 
can be grown further southward. They require a 
moist, preferably clay-loam soil even in their naturally 
favored districts, such as New England, New York 
and Michigan, but such a soil is still more desirable 
when rather too far south for their normal range. They 
require high culture, manuring and fertilizing, and 
thorough pruning and spraying in any locality, and 
these requirements are still more exacting in Mary- 
land. A slight neglect in cultivation, pruning or spray- 
ing in one season results in a mass of blooms the next 
spring, but little or no fruit set. Of course, this ex- 
tra attention which has to be devoted to dwarf pears 



124 DWARF FRUIT TREES 

as compared with Oriental, pears, peaches, apples, etc., 
to be profitable should result in larger, yields, but 
does not usually do so in this latitude. On the other 
hand, we may say in favor of the dwarf pear that the 
quince root is a healthy, reliable root for the pear tree ; 
that the trees attain dieir seasonal growth early, and 
therefore are not as susceptible to pear blight as stand- 
ard pears. Furthermore, they are more easily sprayed, 
pruned, and otherwise handled than the high stand- 
ard trees." 

My friend, Mr. J. W. Kerr, of the Eastern Shore of 
Maryland, who owns one of the oldest and most pic- 
turesque orchards of dwarf pears I ever saw, says that 
Angouleme (Duchess) is the only variety that pays 
for growing in that form. 

Thus the experience of many men in many parts 
of America sums up as we began. The conclusion of 
the whole matter seems to be about this : Dwarf fruit 
trees have not yet played any prominent role in Ameri- 
can commercial horticulture ; but they have been profit- 
able in a few special cases, and the probability seems 
strong almost to the point of certainty that, with the 
development, refinement and specialization of our com- 
mercial fruit growing, a wider field of usefulness will 
be opened for dwarf trees. In the realm of amateur 
fruit growing, an the other hand, — a realm now daily 
widening,— dwarf fruit trees are of capital importance. 
The owners and renters of small grounds, the culti- 
vators of little gardens — the great majority of Ameri- 
can home-makers, in fact, — will find in them an un- 
failing source of pleasure, inspiration, and even of 
profit. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Advantages of dwa-rf trees ... 8 

Apple, propagation of 23 

Apples 63 

Apples, recommended varieties 72 

Bailey, H., quoted 120 

Barr3''s " Fruit Garden ". . . . 119 

Bismarck apple 7 

Boundary fences 16 

Bush fruits 99 

Commercial value 20 

Cordon trees 46 

Currants loi 

Definition of dwarf tree .... i 
Designs for fruit gardens 

53- 55- 59- 6r 

Disadvantages of dwarf trees . 18 

Double-working 27 

Doucin apple 26 

Dwarf tree, definition i 

Early bearing 8 

Erwin, A. T., quoted 29 

Kxpense of dwarf trees .... 18 

Fertilizers 54 

Fillers in orchards 13 

Forms for trees 41 

Gooseberries loi 

Heading young trees 32 

Houses for dwarf fruits .... 107 

J. W. Kerr, quoted 124 

lyodeman, E. G., quoted .... 119 

Longevity of dwarf trees. ... 19 

Management of dwarf trees . . 31 

Management of trees in pots. . 109 



PAGE 

Nectarine, propagation of . . . 28 

Nursery management 31 

Paradise apple 24 

Peach, propagation of 27 

Peaches 83 

Pear, propagation of 26 

Pears 76 

Pears, recommended varieties . 81 

Personalia 112 

Pinching 35 

Plum, propagation of 28 

Plums 90 

Plums, recommended varieties 97 

Pots for fruit trees 106 

Propagation 22 

Pruning apple trees ...... 68 

Pruning dwarf trees 33 

Pruning peach trees 86 

Pruning plum trees 92 

Pyramid tree 42 

Quality of fruit 10 

Root pruning 36 

vSand cherry 30 

San Jose scale 10 

School gardens 15 

Selection of varieties 60 

Suburban places 12 

Tillage 54 

Training in special forms ... 38 

Trellises for trees 58 

U-form trees 44 

Uses for dwarf trees 12 

Waite, M. B., quoted 122 

Walls and fences 15 

Walls for dwarf trees 57 

Wood, E. W., quoted 122 

125 



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